Two bills that would penalize businesses for hiring illegal immigrants are slated for hearing in a House committee Feb. 20, while a third measure will be on the outside looking in.
The House Government Committee will hear a bill sponsored by Rep. Russell Pearce, R-18, that would make it a felony for businesses to hire illegal workers. The panel will also vote on a Democrat immigration plan that contains provisions for employer sanctions, but includes much milder penalties for those who employ illegal immigrants.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-5, to require employers to comply with all Arizona employment laws or face civil and criminal penalties will not be heard.
Pearce’s bill, H2779, is easily the strictest of the measures. It requires all businesses to verify an employee’s immigration status through the Basic Pilot Program, an Internet-based program that verifies an employee’s Social Security number. Employers who hire illegal workers will be charged with a Class 6 felony. A second violation also would bring a felony charge, as well as a $50,000 fine and a suspension of the company’s business license. A third violation increases the fine to $150,000 and revokes the business license.
“It’s very tough and we intend to get tough,” Pearce said.
In past years, Pearce says he struggled with how the state could enforce immigration employment law. The solution, he says, is to require all businesses to sign an affidavit stating they will not hire illegal workers and will take the steps prescribed by H2779 to ensure the employees are eligible to work. Thus, the punishments in the bill are actually for violating the affidavit, not hiring the employees.
The key to the bill, Pearce says, is that the only people who will be prosecuted are those who knowingly break the law by hiring illegal immigrants. Employers who verify the worker’s information through the Basic Pilot Program are safe, even if the employee is later found to be ineligible to work.
“Nobody’s trying to sneak up and get the guy that’s doing the right thing,” he said.
Some Republicans are upset, though, at how the bill was crafted. Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Michele Reagan, R-8, says she wasn’t ever consulted about what would be in the legislation, despite her committee’s focus on business issues.
“I’m just concerned that I didn’t get to help at all in drafting it,” she said, adding that she had asked House leadership to be included in the process.
Konopnicki is critical of the bill largely for its content. Though Pearce is well-intentioned, Konopnicki says, the provisions in the bill are not realistic or, in many cases, allowable by federal law.
“There’s some things that he’s asking to be done in there that are, quite frankly, illegal,” Konopnicki said. “Representative Pearce has never run his own business… and the problem we’re running into is he doesn’t know the basics of employment law.”
The end result, he said, is that Pearce will have trouble getting the support he needs from the Republican caucus.
But Pearce says his bill conforms to all federal standards and those who oppose it are doing so because they are protecting the employers who hire illegal immigrants.
“These folks that are making these excuses are trying to support those they know are breaking the law,” he said. “It’s simply wrong and I’ll do everything I can to stop it. I can’t tolerate it.”
Democrat bill
The Democrat bill, sponsored by Rep. Theresa Ulmer, D-24, and touted as a “comprehensive immigration plan” by supporters, provides $19.6 million in funding to pay for more inspections at the border and additional law enforcement to detect human smugglers and help antiterrorism efforts.
About $15 million of the funding will be used to provide grants to counties, cities and tribal agencies along the border to pay for law enforcement and alleviate the burden caused by illegal immigration.
The bill would require all businesses with more than 40 employees to verify an employee’s eligibility status through the Basic Pilot Program. The verification would be applied to all employees hired after Jan. 1, 2009.
Businesses that knowingly hire an illegal worker would face a fine of $5,000; for subsequent violations in a three-year period, the fines increase to $10,000 and $15,000. If an employer continues to hire illegal workers, the attorney general could then seek to have the company’s business license revoked.
Ulmer says it is “sound and economically feasible for the state” to implement. The Democrat proposal is more business-friendly than Pearce’s.
“It still is going to punish them, but it’s not going to put them out of business, unless they’re a repeat offender,” she said.
Pearce says the employer sanctions provisions, while not completely bad, are not strong enough to deter employers from hiring illegal immigrants.
Ulmer, a freshman lawmaker, said she is looking forward to her bill receiving a public hearing. And, while illegal immigration is the top concern of voters and is a divisive issue, she says her bill is a common-sense approach to dealing with it.
“My bill, I feel, is undivisive,” she said.
Former Yuma lawmaker dislikes both bills
Former Rep. Russ Jones, a Yuma Republican, has been working with lawmakers this session to help them understand the ins and outs of both immigration law and federal employments laws. He dislikes both the Pearce and the Ulmer bills.
“I don’t know which one I hate worse,” he said. “They’re both terrible.”
One major flaw in each, Jones said, is the reliance on the Basic Pilot Program, which he says can’t be used to deny employment. Federal law specifically prohibits entering information in the Basic Pilot Program for an applicant. Employers may only have workers fill out the federal I-9 employment verification form and, subsequently, enter the information into the Basic Program after the person is formally offered and accepts the position.
Konopnicki, who worked with Jones to craft his employer sanctions bill, says both the Democrat and Pearce’s bills have the same problem — a lack of input from the business community.
“The thing that’s missing with both of these bills…[is] neither side sat down with the people it’s going to impact,” he said. “Most businesses are going to be very responsible and would like to come up with something, but they have had zero opportunity [to do so].”
Konopnicki says his bill, H2386, will die a quiet death on the desk of House Government Committee Chairman Kirk Adams, R-19, because House Speaker Jim Weiers has instructed him not to hear the bill. The bill was modeled after an employer sanctions program that was included in an immigration bill Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed last year. The bill and the employer sanctions provisions were supported by most Republicans.
“I don’t think [H2386 not getting heard] says much about the will of the body, but it does say a lot about the will of the speaker,” he said.
A spokesman for Weiers said the bill is not being heard because it is a vehicle for Konopnicki to add a strike-everything amendment to it at a later date.