STAND. COM. REP. NO. 346

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 812

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 812 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO IMMIGRANT SERVICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish an Immigrant Services and Access Unit (Unit) within the Office of Community Services; and

(2) Appropriate an unspecified amount of funds for certain positions in the Unit.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Community Services; Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights; The Filipino Community Center, Inc.; Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights; Hawaii Workers Center; The Legal Clinic; and three individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of Language Access and Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that H.C.R. No. 169, Session of 2021, requested the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to convene a working group to improve access to government services for immigrants and increase immigrant opportunities to make civic and economic contributions to the community. According to testimony received from your Committee, although nearly one in five residents of the State are born abroad, only Hawaii County and Maui County have Offices of Immigrant Services, both of which are under-resourced and understaffed. Your Committee recognizes that although the State has one of the highest ratios of foreign-born individuals per capita in the country, unlike other states with high immigrant populations, there is no statewide agency to provide immigrant and refugee services. Your Committee notes that the Office of Community Services is not a direct services agency, but instead provides oversight to the nonprofit organizations that it contracts with to provide services to program beneficiaries.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Incorporating the recommendations from Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights, by:

(A) Making the duties of the Unit discretionary;

(B) Broadening the services offered by the Unit;

(C) Adding an additional function for the Unit to oversee and monitor the Immigrant Resource Center Program; and

(D) Amending language to give the Unit authority and flexibility to identify and provide various appropriate and comprehensive services for program beneficiaries;

(2) Changing the number of positions requested for the Unit to an unspecified number;

(3) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion;

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor and Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 812, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 812, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor and Technology,

________________________________

SHARON MORIWAKI, Chair