Thread: Missouri contemplates employer immigration sanctions

http://www.belleville.com/mld/bellev...e/14933496.htm


McCaskill, House immigration panel contemplate employer sanctions
GARANCE BURKE
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As experts testified Thursday before a Missouri House committee charged with reshaping the state's immigration policy, State Auditor Claire McCaskill again criticized Republican Sen. Jim Talent over immigration.

McCaskill, a Democrat who is running for Talent's U.S. Senate seat, spoke outside the federal courthouse in Kansas City about her plans to increase sanctions against employers who exploit illegal immigrant labor. She accused Talent of shying away from penalizing businesses, a charge his campaign vehemently denied.

A few miles away at Penn Valley Community College, the House Special Committee on Immigration Reform had a hearing on the issue Thursday in front of a large audience.

"As our work force has changed, our members have become more comfortable working with immigrants," testified Steve Begshaw, vice president of Missouri governmental affairs for the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City. "They just don't want to get in trouble."

Begshaw said his industry's piecemeal, fluid structure complicates the ability of employers to determine workers' legal status. In the Kansas City area, most general contractors are small companies that might hire up to 40 subcontractors to build one single-family home, he said. Subcontractors - anyone from electricians to roofing crews - come to the job site with their own labor force, whose status they presumably check.

"How do you know who was on the framing crew today and who'll be on the plumbing crew tomorrow?" Begshaw asked. "It just becomes so unmanageable if you make the home builder the policeman for the whole industry. The person who does the hiring should be responsible."

Lawmakers in Missouri and across the country are considering strengthening penalties against companies that hire illegal immigrants by denying them state contracts or licenses. But how to enforce such laws is another question, legislators said.

"A lot of the subcontractors may be hiring illegals," said Rep. Jim Guest, R-King City. "If the general contractors don't start doing some due diligence, it's going to fall on their shoulders."

Employer sanctions are largely a federal matter, established through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and enforced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Labor.

But the House committee could propose new state sanctions in its recommendations to House Speaker Rod Jetton, to be submitted early next year.

McCaskill said Thursday the solution rests at the federal level, where she proposed increasing fines and prison sentences for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

"What this administration has done, with the assistance of Sen. Talent and his Republican colleagues, is they've said we're going to create this work force and we're going to let you do it illegally," McCaskill said. "Let's get this out on the table with stopping illegal employment."

She accused Talent of being too cozy with large corporate farming interests, having received thousands of dollars from companies like Tyson Foods and ConAgra, to support strong action against employers.

Talent's staff said McCaskill was envious because Tyson denied her campaign's request for contributions.

"Sen. Talent has supported legislation in the Senate which would require companies that hire illegal immigrants to pay civil penalties," said Talent spokesman Rich Chrismer. "He believes we can solve many of these problems by passing a comprehensive border security bill and he's working in Washington to get that done."

http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/new ... etail.html

Immigration Hot Topic Among Home Builders
Issue To Factor Into Local Elections

POSTED: 7:34 pm CDT June 29, 2006
UPDATED: 8:52 pm CDT June 29, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A leader of the Kansas City Home Builders Association said Thursday that general contractors shouldn't be made responsible for checking whether subcontracted employees are in the United States legally.

Experts estimate that 20 percent of construction workers building houses are illegal immigrants, KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reported.

"With employees coming and going from one job to another, it would just be unmanageable for the general contractor to track every employee of the subcontractor," said Steve Begshaw with the Home Builders Association of Kansas City.

Some state lawmakers disagree.

"I think they probably should be responsible for making sure the workers are legal," state Rep. Gary Dusenberg said.

Dusenberg said he was surprised to learn that police don't check whether the workers are illegal immigrants.

Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin said that would be racial profiling.

"The immigration issue, as far as going out and enforcing it, is against our policy," Corwin said.

Missouri Democratic candidate for Senate Claire McCaskill said fines for companies hiring illegals has dropped off in the Bush administration. McCaskill said stiff fines, starting at $10,000 per incident, would help.

"It will have a deterrent effect. It will have a ripple effect. You will see employers deciding it's not a good idea to hire illegal immigrants. You will see the jobs dry up," McCaskill said.

Her opponent, Republican incumbent Jim Talent wants more border security, and he's opposed to the president's guest worker program.

Mahoney reported that with more immigrants settling in the Midwest, the issue will be an important factor in local elections this year.

STATE CONTRACTS have nothing to do with the Federal! The state has total control on contractors who break laws within the state and bid on state contracts.

Patooey.......passing the buck as usual!! Rest assured, if the states wanted to get a handle on something, they'd be coming down on folks with a vengeance.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 934755.htm

Clcik Here to Watch Video

Posted on Fri, Jun. 30, 2006


Special Committee on Reform | Public hearing is held at Penn Valley
KC debates immigration
A House panel hears differing viewpoints on how to deal with the more than 50,000 estimated illegal immigrants in Missouri.
By LYNN FRANEY


Should Missouri let illegal immigrants attend public colleges at discounted in-state tuition rates?

Should it penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants?

Should it require police departments to check immigration status when they stop someone for a traffic violation?

Those questions and others were debated during a public hearing Thursday at Penn Valley Community College on potential changes to state laws related to illegal immigration.

The hearing was intended to gauge public opinion and gather statistics on how the more than 50,000 estimated illegal immigrants in Missouri affect communities and workplaces. The Missouri House of Representatives’ Special Committee on Immigration Reform is holding a series of hearings across the state.

Gilbert Guerrero, a Central Missouri State University professor, urged the legislators to emulate Kansas — a more “enlightened state,” he said — by offering lower in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants who graduate from Missouri high schools.

“We’re being mean to kids,” Guerrero said. Children who were brought here when they were young by illegal immigrant parents want to succeed in school but are stymied by the high cost of tuition.

But committee members said federal law prohibits illegal immigrants from attending public colleges, so Missouri shouldn’t follow Kansas’ lead.

People also sparred at the hearing over how much responsibility employers should bear for checking the legal status of workers.

The state should crack down on businesses employing undocumented workers, said Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri-Kansas City constitutional law professor. The companies’ business licenses could be yanked, he said, or they could be denied state contracts.

“Jobs are the magnet” for illegal immigrants, Kobach said.

But Steve Begshaw, of the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, argued against making general contractors check work documents for hundreds of workers hired by subcontractors. Nationally, about two in 10 workers building homes are immigrants, he said, but he’s not sure how many of those are working in the United States illegally.

Rep. Tim Flook, a Liberty Republican, disagreed with Begshaw that it’s impractical for general contractors to verify the legal status of every worker on a job site. Often, general contractors make subcontractors prove they have workers’ compensation coverage, he said, so they could just as easily ask for workers’ Social Security numbers or work visas.

Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin said the police-supervised Community Action Network Center on the West Side (where day laborers, lega and illegal wait for people to pick them up for jobs) has reduced crimes such as loitering, robbery and urinating in public.

Police don’t want to check everybody’s legal status, he said. That undermines trust and makes it more difficult to get crime victims and witnesses to come forward.

But Rep. Ed Emery, a Lamar Republican and chairman of the panel, said that by supporting the center the Kansas City Police Department helps people break immigration law.


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@ Hear witnesses at the immigration reform hearing, and Senate candidate Claire McCaskill’s views on the issue at KansasCity.com.


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