This column was originally published by Sheila Kennedy’s blog.
By Sheila Kennedy
December 3, 2024
Among the worst results of the recent election was the local–and sadly predictable–victory of Indiana’s statewide Republican ticket. Mike Braun can be expected to obediently follow the Trumpist/MAGA line. Micah Beckwith and Jim Banks are self-proclaimed Christian Nationalist and an embarrassment to the state (and, actually, to intelligent humans pretty much everywhere.) But Todd Rokita may actually be the worst choice Hoosiers made, if only because he was running for re-election after a term in which he displayed what he is for all to see–an unethical publicity hound consistently pandering to the very worst of the MAGA base.
And he is at it again–(mis)using the resources of his office to pursue ideological, rather than legal, ends. This time, it’s an effort to intimidate Indiana organizations that serve immigrant populations.
One of those organizations is Su Casa, a nonprofit organization that was issued a civil investigative demand by the office of the Indiana Attorney General. The purported reason was an inquiry into human trafficking. Su Casa–along with many other entities in Indiana that serve immigrant communities– are being “questioned” by the AG’s office, probing how they serve migrant communities.
Su Casa was founded in 1999 as a response to the increase of Latin American immigrants arriving in Columbus, Indiana. The majority of them had limited English proficiency, and Su Casa provided assistance and removed barriers to essential services in that community. It’s mission is to “increase self-sufficiency, health, economic independence, education, and ensure Latino families feel safe and belong here.” Its website says “Su Casa believes that all residents should have equitable access to the tools and support needed to be successful regardless of socio-economic or immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or beliefs.”
MAGA cultists like Rokita consider such beliefs unacceptably “woke.”
When I did some research, I discovered that the Attorney General has initiated investigations into several organizations– including nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses– that work to facilitate what the cult deplores as an “influx of migrants into Indiana communities.” These investigations purport to be about labor trafficking and “the strain on local resources due to increased migrant populations.”
Rokita has evidently issued Civil Investigative Demands to the following organizations: the Cass County Health Department; Logansport Community School Corporation; Berry Global Group Inc. (a plastics manufacturing company in Evansville); Tent Partnership for Refugees (a New York-based nonprofit that connects refugees with employment opportunities); God is Good Foundation (a Christian ministry in Evansville assisting immigrants and refugees); and the Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation.
The investigations have been conducted under Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act and the state’s indecent nuisance statute. I was totally unaware of that “indecent nuisance” law, and looked it up. Indiana Code § 32-30-7-1 defines an indecent nuisance as a place where prostitution other other sexual conduct takes place. (Indiana law also defines a nuisance as something that: Is injurious to health, Is offensive to the senses, obstructs the free use of property, and Interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.)
Rokita has expressed concerns that the rapid growth of migrant populations in certain communities has led to overcrowding in housing facilities, strains on local schools and hospitals, and potential risks of labor trafficking. He has attributed these issues to “illegal immigration caused by ‘border czar’ Kamala Harris’ perversion and misapplication of federal law,” that has made “every state a border state and imposed unsustainable costs on Logansport and other cities across the nation.”
This assault on organizations trying to help recent lawful immigrants requires a considerable “interpretive” stretch of the laws justifying this vendetta, since these issues would ordinarily be considered policy matters to be addressed by the General Assembly.
Rokita’s (mis)use of authority is consistent with the GOP’s national assault on nonprofit entities doing work of which they disapprove. A statute recently passed by the House of Representatives (with primarily Republican support), gives the Treasury Department unilateral authority to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits upon receipt of claims that the nonprofit supports terrorism – a measure that will allow Trump to punish nonprofit organizations that oppose him.
In Indiana the reliable electoral victories of Republicans are due to a couple of things, including the state’s relatively low levels of education, but also – to a considerable extent – to the extreme gerrymandering that has given rural Hoosiers a vastly disproportionate say in choosing who will pass and enforce (and abuse) Indiana’s laws.
Our skewed system doesn’t just give us Christian fundamentalists. It empowers petty would-be dictators like Rokita, politicians willing to abuse the system in order to score political points with – and stay in the good graces of – the voters chosen by gerrymandering.
Welcome to Indiana government.
