New punishment won't be in bills to change employer sanctions law...

New punishment won't be in bills to change employer sanctions law


By Jacques Billeaud
The Associated Press, March 26, 2008

Phoenix (AP) -- Two key proposals changing Arizona's employer sanctions law won't contain a new punishment that had drawn criticism from business groups and stalled progress of the measures.

The punishment was intended to encourage businesses to follow the law's requirement for them to check the employment eligibility of workers through a federal database, which is being used by 21,000 of Arizona's 150,000 employers.

One idea for getting businesses to follow the requirement was preventing employers who don't use the database from deducting employee salaries as business expenses.

Instead, a state Senate committee created a proposed incentive Tuesday: prohibiting businesses from getting contracts from state and local government agencies if they fail to use the database.

A similar measure in the state House is expected to drop the new punishment and incorporate the incentive.

The law prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and places business license punishments on those who make such illegal hirings.

Republican Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, author of the law and sponsor of one of the two revisions bills, said he removed the new penalty because a federal employer sanction law prevents states from imposing civil or criminal penalties against violators and the tax provision could have been viewed by the courts as just such a penalty.

'I took that out in an effort to make sure that I didn't leave any of those doors open,' Pearce said.

When the law was passed last year, it provided a measure of legal protection for employers who use the database.

This year's employer sanctions bills would add another protection by giving businesses the option of taking part in a program that would require businesses to use the database.

If workers couldn't be verified through the database, businesses would have to check the accuracy of workers' Social Security numbers through the federal government.

Employers taking part in the voluntary program couldn't be prosecuted for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants if the businesses followed these and other requirements of the program.

'(This year's bills) would also offer some additional assurances to the vast majority of Arizona businesses that are doing everything they possibly can to comply with federal and state law,' said Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Business groups, however, weren't pleased with everything in the proposed revisions, which would allow people to make anonymous complaints under the law.

Employers said such complaints would leave them vulnerable to anonymous complaints from competitors or disgruntled workers.



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