Published: 04.30.2008
Ariz. chamber leaders push for alternate worker verification measure
JERRY KAMMER
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — More than a dozen leaders of Arizona chambers of commerce blasted the state's new employer sanctions law Wednesday, calling on Congress to pass alternative legislation intended to simplify the process of ensuring new employees are authorized to work in the U.S.

"I want to do the right thing," said Kathy Langdon, of the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce. "But I also have to know what I'm doing, in an easy way."
Langdon and the other chamber representatives made their case in a Capitol Hill briefing with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Tucson, who is co-sponsoring the legislation supported by the business groups. They also visited the offices of every member of the state's congressional delegation.
Mary Ann Miller of the Tempe chamber said many of the small businesses she works with are confused by the law's requirements and "terrified" at the prospect of losing their businesses licenses if they run afoul of its provisions.

Said Jack Camper of the Tucson Metropolitan chamber: "We need this process simplified. We need to get back to the business of creating a profit and creating jobs."

Giffords, one of 10 members of Congress whose districts lie along the Mexican border, said the debate over employee verification measures thrust Arizona to forefront of the national debate on immigration reform.
"Arizona is the tip of the spear when it comes to immigration for a lot of reasons," said the first-term congresswoman, adding that Arizona is the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings by undocumented immigrants.
The Arizona law, being studied by several other states frustrated with the failure of Congress to pass immigration reform, requires employers to check new hires through an online federal program.

Called E-Verify, it checks Social Security numbers presented by new hires against the Social Security database to determine whether the numbers are valid.

Giffords' bill, The New Employee Verification Act, would make use of a state-based system in use across the country that was devised to identify deadbeat parents so their wages could be garnished for child support. If passed and signed into law, it would pre-empt the Arizona law.

Employers could access the system by telephone as well as computer. Supporters tout it as a way of quickly identifying a problem that has proliferated around the country: serial use of a valid Social Security number by multiple undocumented immigrants.

Prospects for the new bill, which will be considered next week in a congressional hearing, appear uncertain at best. House leaders have shown reluctance to deal with any measures relating to the hot-button subject of immigration before the November election. Many observers expect no movement on immigration legislation until next year, at the earliest.

But Giffords held out hope that the new bill, whose principal sponsor is Texas Republican Sam Johnson, would gather enough support to win passage.

"We're doing everything we can," said Giffords, who supported the comprehensive immigration reform bill that failed last year in the Senate.
Langdon, on her first visit to the nation's capital, said she arrived several days early to take in the sights. "I love the architecture and the sense of history," she said shortly before joining the other Arizonans on a special evening tour of the White House West Wing.

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