ALA-New rule targets illegals, vendors
New rule targets illegals, vendors
Monday, July 27, 2009
By Steve Doyle
steve.doyle@htimes.com
Council proposal wants city suppliers to certify legality
Huntsville could join the growing list of cities to demand that their suppliers not employ illegal immigrants.
A draft ordinance scheduled to be introduced at the City Council's Aug. 13 meeting would require city vendors to certify that they follow federal employment rules. They would also have to check employee names and Social Security numbers against the national E-Verify database.
Councilman Bill Kling said the proposal, which he supports, grew out of public frustrations that the city does not do enough to deter illegal immigration.
Those calls reached a crescendo after an illegal immigrant fleeing from police in April caused a wreck that killed a young Huntsville couple. Felix Ortega faces reckless murder charges in the deaths of 16-year-old Leigh Anna Jimmerson and her 19-year-old boyfriend, Tad Mattle.
"This is not a knee-jerk reaction," Kling said last week. "It's just finding out what within the legal bounds a city can do (about illegal immigration), which is very little.
"Nobody's out to offend anybody or target any particular nationality."
Attorney Mike Fees, who advises the Huntsville city attorney's office on immigration law, called it a "reasonable, small step ordinance" in line with what other cities have done.
"This is just contractors saying, 'We follow the law, and we certify that we follow the law,' " Fees said. "That's not very offensive."
Within the past year, both the Madison County Commission and City of Decatur have imposed E-Verify requirements on their suppliers. The free online system allows employers to submit the names and Social Security numbers of prospective hires to the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to verify immigration and employment status.
E-Verify will soon be mandatory for companies awarded federal contracts and firms receiving money from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
Under Madison County Commission rules, companies that do more than $100,000 in annual business with the county must use E-Verify. Those with smaller contracts sign an affidavit that they have verified their employees' work status.
On June 1, the Decatur City Council passed a resolution requiring vendors to use E-Verify or a similar system.
Fees said cities such as Hazleton, Pa., that passed "broad, sweeping" rules to curb illegal immigration have generally lost court fights.
"We're now seeing, I think, a more appropriate and careful effort on the part of cities and states to craft legislation that addresses the immigration issue without intruding on federal authority in that realm," Fees said.
Last August, Madison County toned down its anti-illegal immigration pledge policy as part of a court settlement.
In ending an expensive legal fight against Wiregrass Construction Co., commissioners changed the policy's key provision: having vendors pledge in writing that they do not knowingly employ illegal immigrants. They also removed a clause that gave county officials the right to sift through vendors' personnel records.
Hugh McInnish, who serves on an immigration task force created by Kling, said he's rooting for the E-Verify proposal to pass the City Council.
"I have argued that local authorities have more authority than they've been using to enforce the federal laws," McInnish, a former Republican candidate for Congress, said last week. "If you can't prove that you're in the country legally, then you shouldn't be given a job."
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