A business-led initiative to alter Arizona’s employer sanctions law was stopped in its tracks by Arizona voters.
Sixty percent of Arizonans cast votes against Prop. 200, the Stop Illegal Hiring initiative.
The measure, primarily supported by the restaurant, hospitality and service industries, was launched last year after lawmakers approved the nation’s first employer sanctions law designed to crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Supporters of Prop. 200 argued it would help penalize businesses that hire illegal immigrants while protecting innocent employees from losing their jobs.
Opponents, such as Mesa Rep. Russell Pearce, who authored the employer sanctions law, argued vehemently the initiative was a deceptive attempt to weaken Arizona’s existing laws aimed at curtailing illegal immigration.
Nathan Sproul, whose firm Lincoln Strategy Group conducted the Stop Illegal Hiring campaign, said he believed the initiative’s broad effects made promoting the initiative difficult and that voters in general were not receptive to initiatives.
“It’s a difficult campaign to explain: a tough, but fair and enforceable law that we were trying to pass,” he said. “It’s a complicated topic, it was a difficult campaign and we’re disappointed.”
Pearce said the “deceptive” measure had supporters of the sanctions law worried, but that he was relieved and proud that voters “paid attention.”
He said the law has driven illegal immigrants out of the state. The exodus has already lowered violent-crime rates and expenses incurred from educating, providing medical care and incarcerating illegal immigrants, he said.
“We can’t take all the credit because of the economy being down, but it has had an effect,” he said.
The 2007 legislation provided stiff penalties for employers caught knowingly hiring illegal aliens. A first offense generates a 10-day suspension of a business license, while a second infraction could result in the removal of a business’ license to operate.
The law requires employers to scan all newly hired employees through the federal E-Verify Social Security database to ensure workers are legal. However, employers have complained the system is prone to error and the Stop Illegal Hiring Act sought to remove this provision.
The initiative also sought to change the burden of proof necessary to prosecute employers caught with illegal workers. The current standard is constructive knowledge, a burden met if an employer could have reasonably concluded his or her workers are illegal.
If the initiative would have passed, the standard would become actual knowledge, a much more difficult burden of proof for prosecutors to meet as they would be forced to prove an employer was fully aware that an employee was not authorized to work under federal law.
Backers of the initiative also sought to forbid the accepting of anonymous employer sanctions-related complaints against businesses, a practice they claim left them open to harassment from disgruntled employees.
The law, once declared by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a “crippling blow to Arizona business,” was challenged unsuccessfully in court by business interest groups and Hispanic-advocacy organizations on grounds that it violated federal jurisdiction and lacked due process protections for businesses.