The proposal to set up a guest-worker program in Arizona has drawn fire from Republicans, who say it would undercut local workers and add uncompensated care to the health system.
Republicans expressed these concerns during a caucus on April 22. One opponent has already promised to pound the proposal with a barrage of amendments.
Lawmakers are set to tackle the proposal on the Senate floor soon.
The caucus is the final stop before the proposal, which already received the preliminary approval of a Senate panel two weeks earlier, is sent to the Senate floor for a deliberation and then for a vote.
An identical measure is pending in the state House, and the plan is to substitute one for the other at a certain stage to hurry its passage.
The bill’s sponsor in the Senate, Minority Leader Marsha Arzberger, indicated she has more than enough support in her chamber to advance the proposal.
But Arzberger would have to get past the bill’s opponents, including Sen. Ron Gould, who said he is preparing “20 amendments” to the proposal in what could be a belligerent maneuver to derail the bill’s advance.
“I will not be a party to selling out the Arizona worker,” Gould of Lake Havasu told colleagues during the GOP meeting. “I have 20 amendments prepared for this bill. Eat a good lunch. Buckle your seatbelts. You are going to be there a long time.”
The bill’s backers say a guest-worker program might be a solution to the illegal immigration woes Arizona is facing. They argue that the passage of last year’s law that penalizes employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers has opened the door for the state to also address another side of the issue — labor shortage.  
The concept has precedent. The United States has had guest-worker programs in the past, notably the federal Bracero program, which brought Mexicans to work on U.S. farms between the 1940s and 1960s.
Leaders of the agriculture, construction, hospitality and tourism industries have coalesced in support of the guest-worker legislation.
During the GOP meeting, Sen. Barbara Leff of Paradise Valley said employers should provide guest workers with some type of health care coverage so they don’t burden taxpayers with uncompensated care. Without health coverage, they would end up in emergency rooms and residents would have to pick up the tab, increasing the problems that lawmakers have been trying to address.
“This has been an argument that we’ve had about immigration issues for the last six or seven years at least — taking care of people that don’t belong in our system,” said Sen. Tom O’Halleran of Sedona.
Other lawmakers raised concerns about whether the proposal has mechanisms to go after guest workers who abscond. They also want to find out whether guest workers would undergo a thorough health check before they come to the United States.
Arbzerger said the state’s business chambers are opposed to state-mandated health coverage for companies.
“You do understand that a company that offers health insurance to their employees would also offer it to these employees,” she said.
The minority leader said the Arizona Department of Public Safety worked with proponents in drafting the bill’s language, and added that she believes Arizona will actually do a better job of tracking its guest workers than the federal government does in tracking its visa holders.
Under the proposal, guest workers will receive an identification card. The DPS will also be required to maintain a database of approved foreign workers. Also, the legislation specifies circumstances that the temporary worker ID card is revoked, and time periods when a worker must leave the state after his or her card is revoked.