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Hiring illegal workers could mean big fine
Legislature will look at increasing the penalties for such infractions

By Tim Carpenter
The Capital-Journal
Published Thursday, January 04, 2007

Frustration over undocumented immigration will pressure the 2007 Legislature to weigh bills that impose stiffer penalties on employers that knowingly hire illegal workers.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said there was growing bipartisan support for imposition of fines against businesses gaining unfair advantage over competitors by hiring illegal immigrants. Risk-taking employers distort the labor market by paying lower wages and avoiding obligations to the Social Security and unemployment systems, he said.


The 2007 Legislature may attempt to alter spending for K-12 education and also will consider spending millions to repair buildings at Kansas Board of Regents schools.

Friday

"Employers that can hire undocumented workers basically have a better bottom line. They are able to make more profit," Hensley said.

Sen. Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe, chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the issue went beyond competition in the workplace. She said Kansas law ought to shield undocumented workers from exploitation.

"Even though they are illegal," she said, "that doesn't mean they should be treated improperly or denied health care benefits if injured on the job."

Public pressure for immigration reform is growing at both the state and federal levels. It is an issue expected to receive greater attention in Washington now that the U.S. House and Senate are under the control of Democrats.

At the state level, Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said the challenge would be to shape bills that don't undermine the fragile Kansas economy.

"We don't want to do anything that would hurt businesses," Morris said.

He said initiatives passed in other states, including Colorado, would be studied by Kansas lawmakers during the session that starts Monday.

In the 2006 session, an employer-sanction bill sponsored by Rep. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, was defeated by House Republicans.

Hensley said the Legislature should try again to put teeth in an existing state statute that makes knowingly hiring an illegal alien a low-level misdemeanor. The law should be amended to make a violation punishable by a minimum fine of $10,000, he said.

"It needs to be substantial," Hensley said. "A lot of those employers are pretty unscrupulous."

Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, said the state should begin requiring businesses to certify that no illegal immigrants are on the payroll. If a company is found to have mistakenly hired an undocumented worker, he said, a warning should be issued. Subsequent infractions, intentional or not, should trigger fines, he said.

"Once they are put on notice, it's a different story," he said.

Journey said Kansas also should prohibit wages earned by illegal aliens to be considered deductible business expenses for state income tax purposes.

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said the Legislature's ability to influence illegal immigration shouldn't be overstated. Primary responsibility in this area rests with Congress, he said.

"I don't think we should overpromise," he said. "The simple answers are probably not very good answers."

Tim Carpenter can be reached at (785) 296-3005 or timothy.carpenter@cjonline.com.