Thread: NAACP opposes E-Verify initiative in Springfield

NAACP opposes E-Verify initiative in Springfield
City voters will decide on Feb. 7 whether to require businesses to use the federal database.

ky3.com
by KY3 News

3:57 p.m. CST, December 21, 2011

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The NAACP’s Springfield chapter voted last Sunday to oppose a proposed city ordinance that would require many employers in the city to use a federal database called E-Verify to check the immigration status of potential employees. Voters in the city will vote on that ordinance on Feb. 7.

The proposed ordinance would mandate the use of E-Verify by an employer or require the city to revoke its city business license. Many businesses, however, don't have to have a city business license. That includes some of the biggest employers such as hospitals. The ordinance would also require the city finance director to issue fines.

The Ozarks Minutemen collected signatures for the proposed ordinance that forced the City Council either to approve it or to ask voters to approve it. The council voted last month to send it to voters.

The NAACP chapter’s president, Cheryl Clay, said the vote was by the chapter’s general membership. She said the chapter’s officers would talk more about their opposition at a news conference on Friday morning.

“The Minutemen ordinance is not the same as the federal pilot program known as E-Verify -- it is legally flawed, poorly written, and far exceeds established federal and state guidelines currently in place,” Clay said in a news release.

The city attorney’s office told city council members that the part of the proposed law requiring the finance director to issue fines is illegal and unenforceable. The city charter, however, doesn’t allow the council to pass the proposal and immediately amend it, or to change it before sending it before voters. If voters pass it, the council wouldn't be able to amend it for at least six months. The city attorney's office predicts it will have to defend the ordinance against a lawsuit if voters pass it.

“The illegal portions of the ordinance are in direct violation of federal and state law and will most likely, as it has in other cities that passed such ordinances, lead to immediate lawsuits, which the city will have to defend at taxpayer expense,” Clay said.

Clay said the ordinance would be an unfunded mandate on businesses.

It “is not only bad for Springfield because it is legally defective, but it will also adversely affect economic development opportunities, place undue burdens on our small businesses, and will lead to racial profiling,” Clay said. “We urge our city voters to do their personal research on this issue and not adopt any measure sponsored by any extremist groups.”

In the news release, Clay said the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that tracks the activities of groups that and individuals who espouse racism and discrimination, says similar ordinances nationwide have been designed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group identified by the SPLC as “racist and dangerous.”

A spokesman for the Ozarks Minutemen says the group is not racist but merely supports federal law against employing illegal immigrants. Jerry Wilson says the group supports the legal immigration process.

Missouri law already requires all entities doing business with the state to use the E-Verify system.

http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-naacp-op...tory?track=rss

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

NAACP opposes E-Verify initiative in Springfield
City voters will decide on Feb. 7 whether to require businesses to use the federal database.

ky3.com
by KY3 News

3:57 p.m. CST, December 21, 2011

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The NAACP’s Springfield chapter voted last Sunday to oppose a proposed city ordinance that would require many employers in the city to use a federal database called E-Verify to check the immigration status of potential employees. Voters in the city will vote on that ordinance on Feb. 7.

The proposed ordinance would mandate the use of E-Verify by an employer or require the city to revoke its city business license. Many businesses, however, don't have to have a city business license. That includes some of the biggest employers such as hospitals. The ordinance would also require the city finance director to issue fines.

The Ozarks Minutemen collected signatures for the proposed ordinance that forced the City Council either to approve it or to ask voters to approve it. The council voted last month to send it to voters.

The NAACP chapter’s president, Cheryl Clay, said the vote was by the chapter’s general membership. She said the chapter’s officers would talk more about their opposition at a news conference on Friday morning.

“The Minutemen ordinance is not the same as the federal pilot program known as E-Verify -- it is legally flawed, poorly written, and far exceeds established federal and state guidelines currently in place,” Clay said in a news release.

The city attorney’s office told city council members that the part of the proposed law requiring the finance director to issue fines is illegal and unenforceable. The city charter, however, doesn’t allow the council to pass the proposal and immediately amend it, or to change it before sending it before voters. If voters pass it, the council wouldn't be able to amend it for at least six months. The city attorney's office predicts it will have to defend the ordinance against a lawsuit if voters pass it.

“The illegal portions of the ordinance are in direct violation of federal and state law and will most likely, as it has in other cities that passed such ordinances, lead to immediate lawsuits, which the city will have to defend at taxpayer expense,” Clay said.

Clay said the ordinance would be an unfunded mandate on businesses.

It “is not only bad for Springfield because it is legally defective, but it will also adversely affect economic development opportunities, place undue burdens on our small businesses, and will lead to racial profiling,” Clay said. “We urge our city voters to do their personal research on this issue and not adopt any measure sponsored by any extremist groups.”

In the news release, Clay said the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that tracks the activities of groups that and individuals who espouse racism and discrimination, says similar ordinances nationwide have been designed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group identified by the SPLC as “racist and dangerous.”

A spokesman for the Ozarks Minutemen says the group is not racist but merely supports federal law against employing illegal immigrants. Jerry Wilson says the group supports the legal immigration process.

Missouri law already requires all entities doing business with the state to use the E-Verify system.

http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-naacp-op...tory?track=rss

You go Springfield, Missouri! Stand tall and pass your E-verify ordinance.

NAACP, have you lost your frigging mind? What in the hell is wrong with you? Don't you know that E-verify that stops illegal hiring of foreign nationals in our country illegally is the number one best way to create jobs and increase wages and earnings for unemployed Black Americans? Are you so blind that you can't see what is happening to Black Americans because of illegal immigration? Please stop this nonsense of forever representing the wrong people and start representing the people for whom your organization was formed.