Opinion: Nevada's illegal immigrant hiring law won't work


ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:07 p.m. March 24, 2008

CARSON CITY, Nev. – A key section of a new Nevada law that imposes fines on businesses that employ illegal immigrants can't be enforced, the attorney general's office says.
In an opinion sought by the state Taxation Department, Senior Deputy Attorney Karen Dickerson said the section on fines in AB383, a bill pushed by her boss, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto during the 2007 session, is pre-empted by federal laws dealing with immigration.

AB383 mainly focuses on combating the trafficking of immigrants. That's the part that Cortez Masto backed. But it also includes the provision for the state to fine employers if the federal government proves they knowingly hired undocumented workers.

In response to the Taxation Department's query in September, Dickerson said earlier this month that federal immigration law “expressly pre-empts state and local laws which impose criminal or civil sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants, except through licensing and similar laws.â€