In order to secure support from the bill’s sponsor, the Senate is forgoing one major overhaul of employer sanctions legislation in favor of another that will make the measure nearly identical to a stricter proposal that may be on the ballot in 2008.
Sen. Bob Burns, R-9, says finding a solution that would allow the Legislature to make changes to the law in the future is “extremely important.”
“If there are unpredicted glitches in this thing, there’s the potential of taking away the livelihood of people who are doing no wrong,” he said.
If a proposed ballot initiative were approved by voters, it would be virtually impossible to change. In 1998, voters amended the Constitution to prohibit the Legislature from repealing or amending any initiative measure without approval from at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the Legislature.
In its current form, H2779 would require all businesses in Arizona to sign affidavits saying they are not breaking the law by hiring illegal immigrants.
Employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, thus providing false information on the affidavits, would be guilty of a felony punishable by up to a year in prison and face fines ranging from $2,500 to $50,000. Three-time violators would face up to 18 months in prison and fines ranging from $10,000 to $150,000. Two-time offenders would also face a 90 days suspension of their business licenses, while three-time offenders could have their business licenses revoked for two years.
Getting around federal employment laws
The state cannot punish businesses for violating federal employment laws. The affidavit provides a work-around to that, since the businesses would be punished instead for false swearing if they hire illegal workers.
The initiative, known as Legal Arizona Workers, or LAW, would prohibit employers from “knowingly” hiring illegal workers. It would also require all businesses to verify a prospective employee’s immigration status by using the Basic Pilot Program, a federal online Social Security verification tool. Violators would lose their business licenses.
Burns said the proposed amendment for H2779 would turn the bill into “99 percent of the initiative.” He said the initiative, compared to the original bill, does a better job of attacking the problem.
“It’s much more straight-forward and goes directly to the issue,” he said.
Prior to this, some senators had hoped to strip the bill of the affidavit requirement and set up a “two-strike” model, wherein businesses would get a warning on the first violation and lose their licenses on the second. Burns says that plan has been dropped.
Rep. Russell Pearce, the sponsor of the bill and the author of the initiative, said he supports the effort to make the legislation more like the ballot measure.
“If they do that, I’m OK with it,” he said. “It just cuts right to the chase.”
The District 18 Republican opposed the previous attempt to amend his bill in the Senate and had said he would let the bill die if the affidavit language was removed, but said he preferred finding a solution that would allow the Legislature to pass the bill.
The bill has sat idle in the Senate since April 5, when the Appropriations Committee approved it. Burns says a number of Republican senators disliked the affidavit requirement.
“That just rubbed the wrong way on a lot of folks in the caucus,” Pearce said, explaining that it would create a large bureaucracy and seemed to presume all businesses were guilty.
But Burns said the Senate should not be criticized for taking so long to bring the bill to the floor because of the repercussions it could have.
“I think it’s worth taking the time to make sure we’re doing this, hopefully, right, because it could have tremendous impact on business in Arizona,” he said, adding he hopes to bring the bill to the floor for debate and a vote by May 10.