Thread: Arizona's harsh law on illegals heads north

Arizona's harsh law on illegals heads north
October 27, 2007
Rob Reuteman
PHOENIX - Come January, the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country go into effect in Arizona, threatening business owners with mandatory and permanent revocation of their licenses to operate if they are caught hiring illegals more than once.

And Arizona's governor warned a group of Denver business leaders Friday that Colorado will likely grapple with similar legislation before long.

"Don't think this isn't coming your way," Gov. Janet Napolitano told 140 attendees of this year's Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Leadership Exchange.

Under the Employers Sanctions Bill, passed by Arizona lawmakers in July and signed into law by Napolitano, companies that hire illegal immigrants would see their license to operate suspended for up to 10 days after the first offense. A second offense would result in what she has called the "business death penalty" - permanent loss of a company's license to operate in Arizona.

"It's so egregiously stupid, I can't believe it," Elliott Pollack, CEO of an economics and real estate consulting firm told the group Thursday. "If that law goes into effect, half a million people will get up and leave the state."

Napolitano and other business leaders who spoke to the Colorado delegation said lawmakers felt compelled to pass the bill because a group led by the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C., was threatening harsher actions through a ballot initiative. In Arizona, once a ballot initiative is successful and becomes law, it cannot be modified.

"I signed this bill because doing it by statute will take some gas out of the initiative process," said Napolitano, a second-term Democrat. "By keeping it statutory, we can retain a flexibility that the initiative process won't give us."

If I understand this properly, legislation by blackmail is alive and well in the land of the Diamondbacks.

"Some businesses have come to rely on illegal immigrants," Napolitano said. "Maybe this law will help flush them out."

Former legislator and gubernatorial candidate Alfredo Gutierrez told the group, "Arizona is to Mexicans what Mississippi or Alabama was to blacks - ground zero."

"It's incredibly stupid," he said. "It will have a major impact on growth. You can't go into a single business in this town and not find a Mexican working."

If the law seems harsh to you already, it gets worse. Complaints about an employer can be made anonymously, possibly by a disgruntled employee or even an ex-wife, as one speaker suggested. And the law says every single complaint must be investigated; no county attorneys can exercise judgment or allow leeway. And some sheriff's vans even have signs on their sides, advertising the complaint hotline. Oh, and by the way, the jobless rate in Arizona is 3.3 percent, essentially full employment.

If an Arizona employer "knowingly" or "intentionally" hires unauthorized workers - if he knows or "should have known" that a worker is undocumented - he's nailed. Two strikes and he's permanently out of business.

A federal lawsuit filed by Arizona business leaders seeks to block the state's bill before it goes into effect on the grounds that the state is overriding federal jurisdiction. A hearing is set for Nov. 14.

In the summer of 2006, Colorado legislators passed legislation with similar intent, but a far lighter penalty. Beginning in January of this year, all Colorado employers were required to "affirm" that they have taken several steps to determine the legal work status of new hires. They must review an employee's "legal work status" and must make copies of documents showing identity and work status. Employers found in violation will be fined $5,000 for the first offense and $25,000 for each additional offense.

"Don't think you've taken care of this problem with the measures you passed last year," Napolitano said. "There are people in your state still very interested in this issue."

Eleven-term congressman, Jim Kolbe, whose Arizona district encompassed an area where 50 percent of all illegal crossings take place, told the Denver group, "I'm sorry you had to come this far to get away from Tom Tancredo and still hear about immigration."

www.rockymountainnews.com

Too bad we don't have legislators here in Texas that can pass similiar laws to free us from the onslaught of invaders. Our Texas legislature must be the most corrupt from the governor on down. After all Jorge Bush was the previous governor...should I say anything more?

Former legislator and gubernatorial candidate Alfredo Gutierrez told the group, "Arizona is to Mexicans what Mississippi or Alabama was to blacks - ground zero."

Whatever that means.

"It's incredibly stupid," he said. "It will have a major impact on growth. You can't go into a single business in this town and not find a Mexican working."

What's so good about growth? Stupid who?

"It's so egregiously stupid, I can't believe it," Elliott Pollack, CEO of an economics and real estate consulting firm told the group Thursday. "If that law goes into effect, half a million people will get up and leave the state.

What's so bad about that? Stupid!

"It's so egregiously stupid, I can't believe it," Elliott Pollack, CEO of an economics and real estate consulting firm told the group Thursday. "If that law goes into effect, half a million people will get up and leave the state."

Good! That means a half of a milion citizens will become employed at higher wages!