Thread: Michigan Legislature to Vote Soon on Immigration Bill

Michigan Legislature to Vote Soon on Immigration Bill

By Elizabeth Llorente

Published June 27, 2011

The Michigan House of Representatives is expected to take up two immigration bills that passed a committee last week.

The bills require public sector employers to use E-Verify to check a prospective worker’s eligibility to be employed in the United States. Businesses, including subcontractors, that do not abide by the law would not be permitted to do business with government agencies for a year.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Dave Agema, says the measures will stop taxpayer money from going toward salaries for undocumented workers. He says that legal residents of Michigan, which has been one of the worst-hit states in the nation’s ailing economy, cannot afford to lose jobs to people who are unlawfully in the United States.

“They’re highly into the construction business, road crews,â€

For its part, the Michigan Farm Bureau has expressed opposition to the bill. The bureau says it is concerned that such a law would affect Michigan as a similar one reportedly has affected Georgia, which immigrants have left, creating a farm worker shortage.

Hmm, how about a state agency tracks such farm workers and the employer be required to pick up the tab for ALL INCIDENTAL COSTS of the worker rather than passing on those costs to the taxpayers?

For some damn reason I think they'd offer higher wages to legal citizens before they agreed to that.