COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Immigration policy has been at the forefront of this election cycle, and now a Republican-backed bill at the Ohio statehouse aims to address it,  “We are limited as a state into what we can do, but that doesn't mean we can't do anything,” Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) said.  Here’s what to do if you lose an absentee ballot before Election Day “It's unclear to me how the state government would enforce a law like this,” Cesar Garcia Hernandez, an immigration law expert and professor at the Ohio State University College of Law, said.  House Bill 671, known as the America First Act, would create a felony offense of any found in Ohio who does not have legal status in the United States.  “It's not that we're going to send people out on a hunt for people who are illegal, but when it becomes evident and apparent that someone is illegally in this country, that's when they act,” Click said.  “It's not straightforward to decide who is in the United States without the government's permission,” Hernandez said. “We have folks in, in communities in Ohio who are living in the United States fully with the federal government permission, and yet politicians will regularly describe them as being in the United States illegally. That's a reflection of a basic misconception of what exactly immigration allows.”  Click said the bill is, in part, about sending the message that if you are undocumented and in the United States, “don’t settle in Ohio.” He said it is the state’s attempt to strengthen federal immigration laws. Brown slams Moreno for abortion comments during Powell campaign stop “We put some teeth to that, not because we want to put people in jail, not because we want to fine people, but because we want to redirect people to do it the legal and the orderly way,” he said.  So how does it work?  If an illegal immigrant is found in the state, they go before a judge. The judge then determines whether they are on their path to legal status, like if they are awaiting a visa renewal or asylum determination; in that case, they get a 90-day grace period, which can be extended an unlimited number of times.  “There are over a million asylum applications that are pending, and many of those have, most of those, in fact, have been pending for well over 90 days,” Hernandez said. “The proposal is crafted in such a way that it suggests a limited understanding of the way that immigration and decision-making operates in the United States.”  If someone who is undocumented is found in the state, they must be cross-referenced in other databases to identify threats or potential threats to national security.  Fact checking Ohio’s U.S. Senate campaign ads Hernandez said this is a big undertaking for state judges and law enforcement.  “I think a proposal like this is biting off a whole lot and putting enormous responsibility on law enforcement throughout the state of Ohio, but also, of course, the court system that would ultimately have to get really down into the nitty gritty of federal immigration law,” he said. “We're not talking about federal immigration judges here. We're talking about state judges in state courthouses throughout Ohio who do not have much, if any, familiarity with federal immigration law.”  Click said that when it comes down to it, he thinks this bill will also help with crime reduction.  “There always has been and always will be crime, but this is an important factor in our state and in our nation, and this is one step that we can take in the right direction of lowering the crime and keeping people safe,” Click said.  “It's unclear to me what the relationship is between unlawful presence in the United States, being in the States in violation of immigration law, and violent crime,” Hernandez said.    A tech giant might want to buy Intel, but sources say it won’t before a key date According to a study done last month by the National Institute of Justice, undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half of the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes.  Another study shows they are 33% less likely to become incarcerated.   “We have over a century's worth of data that indicates that actually, if what you want is to make your community safer, you should actually increase the number of migrants who live in those communities,” Hernandez said.  Click points to two instances in the past decade in his district that involved undocumented immigrants as to why he thinks this bill would make Ohio communities safer.  “I'm a big fan of helping people come legally, but when people are coming illegally, that spells trouble with a capital T,” Click said. “It's going to reduce [crime] because there are four people in my district, at least, that would be alive today if it wasn't for illegal immigrants, not immigrants. Illegal immigrants.”  “If what you're looking for is an example of a single person who is in the States without the federal information and commits a violent crime, of course, in a population of tens of millions of thousands of people, you're going to find that and you can find them,” Hernandez said. “When you're making policy, you shouldn't be driven by the emotional appeal of a single instance. You should instead be, be animated by the collective wisdom that we've gathered over decades in across the United States.”  This bill will not have its first hearing until after the November election, if at all.