Published: Sept. 20, 2011 Updated: 1:47 p.m.

San Juan proposal urges crackdown on illegal hires

City ‘Right to Work’ ordinance introduced by Councilman Derek Reeve would prohibit local businesses from hiring people in the country illegally and would authorize the city to investigate formal complaints and take steps to punish employers found in violation.

By ROB VARDON / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A San Juan Capistrano councilman Tuesday night will propose an ordinance that would authorize the city to investigate and report local employers on grounds of hiring people in the country illegally.

Councilman Derek Reeve's proposed "San Juan Capistrano Right to Work Act" seeks to ensure that "those who have the legal right to work in the United States of America acquire jobs" that might otherwise go to illegal residents.

Councilman Derek Reeve's proposed "San Juan Capistrano Right to Work Act" is designed to keep local employers from hiring illegal workers.

In a memo to the council outlining the proposal, Reeve says, "Unauthorized aliens take away the very jobs relied upon the most by those from lower socioeconomic groups, including blacks, Latinos and those less-educated."

The item is on the agenda for Tuesday night's City Council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 32400 Paseo Adelanto. See a link to the memo here.

The act would require an employer "to not knowingly employ, contract or subcontract an unauthorized alien." The requirement would match federal law, Reeve says, while not placing any additional regulations on businesses, such as requiring use of E-Verify, an online system that compares information from an employee's Employment Eligibility Verification form to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm his or her legal eligibility to work.

According to the proposed ordinance, the city would investigate any formal complaint of an employer hiring an illegal worker. Upon written notice to the employer, the city would seek records confirming the legal status of the worker in question.

If the city determines the complaint is valid, it would notify local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the case.

On a first violation, the city would demand that the employer fire all illegal workers and sign a declaration within 10 business days under penalty of perjury that it had done so.

A second violation would cost the employer its city business license.

"It is anticipated this ordinance will have a chilling effect on hiring illegal aliens and (that) enforcement activities will be minimal," Reeve's memo says.

The city would not investigate complaints based on race, color or national origin, he says.

San Juan Capistrano uses E-Verify to screen its own employees and the employees of its contractors. Several other Orange County cities do the same.

But in April 2010, the City Council, which then included three members who are not there now, rejected a proposal to give stickers to businesses that volunteered to screen their employees and job candidates through E-Verify. The front-window stickers would notify the public of their use of the system. Reeve was not on the council at the time; he was elected in November.

Reeve says in his memo that local governments including Lancaster, Temecula, Lake Elsinore, Hemet and San Bernardino County have enacted ordinances similar to the "San Juan Capistrano Right to Work Act," though they require E-Verify.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-318 ... reeve.html