Bill on illegal immigrants advances to full House

HELENA — Montana lawmakers tackled illegal immigration Friday, pushing forward a bill to ban illegal immigrants from receiving workers' compensation insurance benefits and hearing initial debate on a plan to turn to a federal immigration database before issuing Montana driver's licenses.

Staunch opponents to illegal immigration want the state to use that federal database to verify legal immigration status before issuing a driver's license.

Opponents of House Bill 178 argue the state would be subjecting its residents — and control of its identification — to a database that was central...