Virginia’s Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill to allow the state to strip business licenses from employers convicted of hiring illegal immigrants, one of the few illegal immigration bills to garner bipartisan support in the legislature.

The House-generated proposal would take away the right to do business in the commonwealth for at least a year following a federal conviction. The bill managed to avoid being killed in the newly Democrat-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Richard “Dick” Saslaw has promised to block measures deemed too aggressive to illegal aliens.

Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, a member of the Virginia Immigration Commission, said he expected the law would be met with legal action from big businesses.

“It’s like don’t ask don’t tell,” Marshall said, referring to businesses hiring illegal immigrants. “It’s almost the same as the policy of the military with the homosexuals.”

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Gordon Hickey, a spokesman for Gov. Tim Kaine, said the governor would review all illegal-immigration measures carefully but has not taken a position on the bill.

Republicans entered the 2008 legislative session with a broad agenda focused on driving illegal immigrants from Virginia, but they have seen some of their bills die in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee and one of its subcommittees.

The scuttled measures include one that would deny illegal immigrants access to tax-relief programs, which died when proponents couldn’t prove they were actually using the programs, and another bill that would mandate employers check applicants’ legal status through an electronic “E-Verify” program, which was killed when concerns emerged about the program’s accuracy.

wflook@dcexaminer.com