Thread: Md. county announces crackdown on firms hiring illegal immig

Md. county announces crackdown on firms hiring illegal immigrants
8/17/07

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Anne Arundel County will require contractors to certify that they have no undocumented workers, a move that puzzles local business groups, alarms immigrant advocates and appears to fly in the face of court rulings in other jurisdictions that have held that similar ordinances unlawfully usurp federal authority.

An executive order issued this week by Republican County Executive John R. Leopold requires contractors to sign an affidavit swearing they do not employ people living in the country illegally. Evidence that a company has hired illegal immigrants would constitute a "material breach of contract," allowing the county to drop the contractor from the job.

"Any company that is complying with federal law and not hiring illegal immigrants will have nothing to be concerned about," said Leopold.

The directive is the first of its kind in the state, and one of the first in the country since a federal court threw out a local ordinance adopted in Hazleton, Pa. that sought to deny city contracts and business permits to companies that employed illegal immigrants. The court ruled that the town's action usurped federal immigration policy.

But some critics wondered why Leopold issued an order that appears to duplicate existing federal prohibitions against hiring undocumented workers while making it clear he has no plans for additional enforcment.

"How is he going to enforce this? Is he going to send people out to every (business)?" Centro de Ayuda President Mary Schumaker asked. "Is he going to tell police officers to cut back on criminals so they can chase down illegals? I think it's absurd."

The answer to those questions appears to be, no.

"It'll be more of a passive enforcement, unless someone notifies us of something," said Fred Schram, director of the county's Office of Central Services.

Leopold said the county will will only act if the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement brings a violation to its attention.

"We hope that individuals, by signing an affidavit on a purchasing agreement, recognize the seriousness of the matter," Leopold said. "We don't want to utilize county resources for this effort. We won't be intrusive."

Nevertheless, the order offended local business owners by implying that they are not following the law, said Bob Burdon, president of the Anne Arundel Chamber of Commerce.

"It really puts businesses in an improper and inappropriate light, when all of them work to comply with the federal mandate," Burdon said. "We're still trying to figure out why he felt it necessary to do this when it's been a policy all along."

It's hard enough negotiating the existing tangle of federal laws and regulations, Burdon said, where businesses are required to ask for an employee's documents, but cannot question the validity of those documents without risking a discrimination charge.

"Really, employers are in a Catch-22," he said.

And Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland, said the policy could add to discrimination of Hispanics, hurting businesses that use immigrant labor.

"Trying to resolve a federal issue with an executive order, from my viewpoint, is something that's not productve for the county," Torres said. "The reality is that the immigration system is broken, and the economy is demanding an immigrant work force."

http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 17046/1002

This is really a first for Maryland. Maryland is so liberal that they hand out drivers licenses to people using a hispanis organization office as residence. They know that many of the people who recieve the licenses don't even live in Maryland but in other states.