Thread: AZ-U. S. C of Commerce asks justices to kill Az.santions law

Employer sanctions law meets challenge
US Chamber of Commerce asks justices to kill Ariz. rule
By Howard Fischer

105 Comments on this story


Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.28.2009

PHOENIX — The nation's largest business group is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to quash Arizona's employer-sanctions law, at least in part to prevent the idea from spreading.
Legal papers filed in Washington urge the justices to rule it is illegal for Arizona to punish employers who are found guilty of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. Attorney Carter Phillips, hired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, contends that such sanctions are pre-empted by federal law.
Phillips, also arguing on behalf of Arizona business groups and Hispanic-rights organizations, additionally wants the justices to conclude that the state is powerless to force companies to use the national E-Verify system to determine if new employees are legally entitled to work in this country.
Phillips said the court needs to review — and, from his perspective, overturn — the Arizona law because other states are following suit.
"In the first three months of 2009 alone, over 1,000 immigration-related bills and resolutions were introduced in all 50 states," Phillips wrote in his legal brief. "At least 150 of these bills related specifically to employment, and 40 such bills have been enacted in 28 states since 2007," the year Arizona approved its legislation.
Phillips argued that these actions are "disrupting the congressional plan to comprehensively and uniformly" regulate employment of immigrants.
"Without immediate action by this court, the crazy-quilt of state and local immigration statutes will continue to expand, multiplying burdens on employers and unfairness to employees," he wrote. Phillips said that by taking the case now, the high court has a chance to short-circuit all that, particularly if the justices conclude that states are not free to enact their own employer-sanctions laws.
Phillips also asked the justices to seek the views of the solicitor general to see what the Obama administration thinks about states having their own laws. Phillips said he believes the executive branch of the government will side with the employers' belief that only a national system is appropriate to determine who is here legally and the punishment for employers who break the law.
Whether that is true, however, remains to be seen. It was Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano who, as governor, signed Arizona's employer-sanctions statute into law.
Steve Wilson, spokesman for Attorney General Terry Goddard, said Monday that his office believes the statute is legal, as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled, and will take the necessary actions to defend it.
Central to the case is who gets to punish companies that hire people in this country illegally.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act, approved by Congress in 1986, precludes states and cities from imposing any civil or criminal penalties on companies for their hiring practices. But the same law allows states to have their own "licensing or similar laws."
Based on that, Arizona legislators enacted the Legal Arizona Worker Act. It allows a judge to suspend the licenses of any firm found guilty of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. A second offense within three years puts the company out of business.
Phillips contends the sole reason for the exemption was to let states impose sanctions "based on true licensing laws that require proper qualifications." And even in that case, he argued, a company would first need to be found guilty by a federal hearing officer or judge before a state could revoke a license.
The Arizona law even includes a company's articles of incorporation. "In short, a company found to have violated the new state immigration law could have its charter revoked and its very existence extinguished by the state," he said.
Similar arguments were presented to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but the court upheld the validity of the law last year.
Although the law has been on the books for more than a year, no employer has been charged with violating it, much less been found guilty, though some county prosecutors reported they have received complaints.


http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/302574

What good is a law if you are not going to enforce it?????

Now these same employers DO NOT want to pay a gross income tax for the Health care of all Americans, I bet? But they want Americans and Congress to permit or turn a blind eye once again to the illegal hiring practice of hiring illegal aliens or more visa card holders.

this is for the US CoC

ONE FINGER SALUTE.................... guess which one

What Happens after an Amnesty is granted to Illegal Aliens? Then these same companies are going to go out and encourage MORE Illegal Aliens to come to this country because the ones legalized are now too expensive because of Insurance, taxes and minimum wage laws...

These Businesses need to be exposed...

"Once again the Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Political Contributors consider United States citizens only as "units of labor" and the sooner we become a Third World Country the better for their "bottom line"! Our Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Political Contributors will not be happy until they transform the United States into a Third World Country for most of our citizens while furnishing the CHAMBER of COMMERCE and all their Elitist Special Interest Groups with their supply of "cheap labor". The Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Contributors are "socializing benefits" to the ILLEGALS, camouflaged as welfare for United States Citizens, on the backs of United States citizens through our assets such as the Education System, Social Security, and Health Care not to mention our National Security while "privatizing" the profits for themselves!"

HEAVY FINES and FELONY JAIL time for the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS! Felony Conviction and Deportation for the ILLEGALS!

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4410--0-0.html

The US Chamber of Commerce does not care about the rule of law or this country! They care about representing the business interests of corporations who want continued access to cheap, illegal labor, to the detriment of American citizens.