MICHIGAN STATE REP. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, testifies Thursday in support of his House Joint Resolution B, which aims to amend the state constitution to require proof of citizenship for voters. (Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance)

Michigan House Republicans took votes on several policies aligned with President Donald Trump’s priorities on Thursday, achieving mixed results on measures to ban sanctuary cities, a proposed constitutional amendment intended to bar noncitizens from voting and legislation they say would end diversity, equity and inclusion practices in hiring.

Though House Republicans successfully advanced several policies tied to undocumented immigration, Rep. Bryan Posthumus’s House Joint Resolution B, which requires residents to show proof of citizenship when casting their ballot and registering to vote, stalled when put to a vote, failing to reach the two-thirds supermajority needed to advance.

However, the effort to amend the state constitution is not quite dead, with Posthumus, R-Rockford, moving to reconsider the vote and tabling the matter for another session.

Additionally members of the Board of State Canvassers approved the language and form for a proposal that mirrors the House’s resolution, giving supporters 180 days to gather signatures in order to place the matter before voters on the 2026 ballot.

“There’s a potential that down the road we bring it back up and see what happens then,” Posthumus told reporters after Thursday’s session concluded.

“Whether it is done legislatively, which, while it failed today, that doesn’t mean it’s dead forever, or whether it’s through the petition drive one way or another, I’m going to make sure it’s on the ballot,” Posthumus said.

Posthumus first offered the effort in 2024 in response to reports of a 19-year-old University of Michigan student from China casting a ballot in Ann Arbor.

The Department of State has since identified 15 additional cases of noncitizen voting in the 2024 election out of more than 5.7 million ballots cast.

“This is a serious issue, one we must address with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer,” Benson said in an April 3 statement, noting that only U.S. citizens can legally register and vote in elections. “Our careful review confirms what we already knew — that this illegal activity is very rare. While we take all violations of election law very seriously, this tiny fraction of potential cases in Michigan and at the national level do not justify recent efforts to pass laws we know would block tens of thousands of Michigan citizens from voting in future elections.”

Voting rights advocates have repeatedly warned that Posthumus’ proposal would have serious consequences on the ability of married or divorced women who change their names, seniors and low-income voters to cast their ballot.

“This is a poll tax, plain and simple. You have to pay money to produce documents in order to vote. That is a poll tax,” state Rep. Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, told reporters ahead of Thursday’s House session.

Though the policy does include a hardship exception to cover the cost for individuals who do not have the necessary documentation, Koleszar questioned whether that would include the middle class. While speaking on the floor, he also pointed to the impact of a similar policy in Kansas, which blocked 31,000 individuals who were otherwise eligible to vote from accessing the ballot.

State Rep. Stephen Wooden, D-Grand Rapids, the minority vice chair of the election integrity committee, compared the proposal to the Kansas law alongside another policy in Arizona and the SAVE Act proposed in Congress, all of which have drawn criticism for creating barriers to voting.

The only substantive difference between these policies is that Posthumus’s proposal would leave the implementation details to be hammered out by a future Legislature, Wooden said.

State Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, who previously chaired the House Elections Committee pitched several alternatives to the joint resolution.

“How about having our Department of State do more audits before the elections and not after? What about using existing records to check new registrations on a rolling basis? How about adding bold, not-to-be-missed signage at every polling place laying out the consequences of voting as a noncitizen and let’s put it in some different languages that reflect the population of the district to avoid any potential language barriers,” Tsernoglou said.

Tsernoglou’s office later announced a set of three bills sponsored by Wooden, Koleszar and state Rep. Mai Xiong, D-Warren, in cooperation with the Secretary of State’s office as part of the first phase of legislation aimed at tightening up Michigan’s election security.

The proposals include:

— Requiring the secretary of state to compare driver data to voter registration information to identify records of potential non-citizens that need further review.

— Giving the secretary of state the ability to remove voters who haven’t voted in 20 years from the voter rolls after notice.

— Requiring the secretary of state to regularly review the instructions on the voter registration form to ensure citizenship eligibility requirements are clearly described.

In his own floor speech, Posthumus challenged the arguments put forth by Democrats. While Koleszar noted the number of noncitizens barred from voting by the Kansas law was “statistically indistinguishable from zero,” Posthumus pointed to the 2000 Presidential election, where former President George Bush defeated Al Gore by a 537-vote margin in Florida. He also pointed to multiple recent elections in the Michigan Legislature that had been decided by double digit margins.

Additionally, Michigan has the benefit of being able to learn from Kansas and Arizona’s mistakes, Posthumus said before urging a yes vote on the proposal.

In the unlikely case that Posthumus’ proposal achieves the two-third margin needed to pass the House, it would need to win support from two-thirds of members in the Democratic-led Senate before the matter could be placed on the ballot for a majority of Michiganders to decide in the next general election.

Republicans advance policies on undocumented immigration

Prior to taking a vote on House Joint Resolution B, the chamber cast its first votes of the day on a set of bills banning local and county governments from enacting or enforcing sanctuary city or county policies, ordinances or laws, which typically limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. If the bills become law, any locality with an existing sanctuary policy would have 60 days to eliminate it and comply with state policy.

The bills creating this ban, House Bills 4338 and 4339, passed along party lines, with full support from Republicans’ 58 member majority. However, House Bill 4342 — which would bar any city or village with a sanctuary policy in place from receiving state revenue sharing funds used to pay for key services like police and fire departments, funding for roads and sewers and garbage collection — did see the dropoff of one Republican, Rep. Jaime Greene, R-Richmond.

Another set of bills, House Bills 4340 and 4341, which aim to bar noncitizens from receiving welfare and housing assistance, gained support from Xiong and fellow Democratic Reps. Peter Herzberg, D-Westland; Tullio Liberati, D-Allen Park; Denise Mentzer, D-Mount Clemens; and Angela Witwer, D-Delta Township.

However, the bills are unlikely to advance in the Democratic-led Senate, as split control of the Legislature has led to deadlock.

Effort Republicans say would end DEI practices in hiring receives overwhelming support

In an uncharacteristic show of strong bipartisan support, nearly all members present in the House voted in support of a policy Republicans argue would end diversity, equity and inclusion practices in hiring at state agencies.

House Bill 4288, put forth by state Rep. Erin Byrnes, D-Dearborn, states “a state agency shall not hire an applicant for unclassified employment unless the state agency bases the hiring on 1 or more objective and merit-based factors that include, but are not limited to, the applicant’s relevant education or work experience.” It does not mention diversity, equity or inclusion, or DEI hiring practices.

State Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Caledonia, who introduced nearly identical legislation last year, said she was surprised to see Byrnes reintroduce the bill. However, when she began to mention DEI hiring practices, House Minority Floor Leader John Fitzgerald, D-Wyoming, raised a point of order, noting that “the speech and debate on the floor of this house must contain and be relevant to the bill itself.”

“I do not find that — in the absence of any diversity, equity or inclusion language included in this bill — that that is relevant or germane to the debate here today,” Fitzgerald said.

Rigas was permitted to continue, telling the House “DEI has left us divided and lowered with lowered standards. H.B. 4288 fixes that by demanding objective, merit-based hiring. Agencies that choose to hire by race, identity or anything other than merit will face a $10,000 fine.”

The bill passed with support from 105 members of the 110-member body. State Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, marked the sole vote against the legislation.

While Wegela requested his name be removed as a cosponsor of the bill, Byrnes requested the board be opened for members to join in cosponsoring the bill, with the bill gaining support from 74 members by the time the voting board was closed.

Fitzgerald later told reporters the bill was part of a larger pay-equity package, calling Republican’s description of the bill as anti-DEI bill as “a really poor misunderstanding of the legislation.”

“I think that really what we’re focused on is trying to make sure that people who are not necessarily relationally, or have a relationship with their workplace, that they’re applying to don’t get shut out indiscriminately. We want to make sure that people on their merit, on their capability, on their work experience, have the opportunity to do that,” Fitzgerald said.

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