My last post discussed one of two parts to the Arizona immigration law - the requirement to use E-Verify. The more controversial part of the law allows the state to revoke business licenses for employers who employ unlawfully present workers. According to a report in the Arizona Republic, after a full year in force, not a single employer has been prosecuted. That part of the law is very possibly unconstitutional and the courts are still in the middle of sorting out the issues. But the federal government is responsible for enforcing immigration law and that's where the focus needs to be rather than at the state or local level.
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Nebraska Governor Dave Heinemann refuses to follow governors in Rhode Island and Minnesota in requiring state contractors and state agencies to use E-Verify.
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The gist is that the 1996 immigration act which created E-Verify said that the program was voluntary. Also, requiring the re-verification of existing employees exceeds the statute's mandate. The suit alleges as well that the regulation exceeds the parameters of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949.
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Putnam County, New York is considering a law that would permit the revocation of business licenses for certain types of small businesses. My favorite quote from the story is actually in the reader comments:
I can think of one person who benefits from illegal immigrants: The Consumer, whose cost of numerous indispensible services decreases s a result of low paid illegal immigrants. If people dont like illegal immigrants performing labor intensive work, maybe they should do it themselves. Until everyone cuts their own lawn, flips their own burger, cleans their own house and builds their own additions they should shut their ignorant white-trash mouths.
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A judge will determine if Columbia County's law fining employers up to $10,000 for unlawfully employing illegally present workers is legal.
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The Rhode Island Department of Administration has been having hearings about implementing Governor Carcieri's mandate that all state agencies and all private companies doing business with the state use E-Verify. The ACLU is still fighting the order in court and wants protections for US workers.
