Thread: FL-Bill Raises Hurdle For Illegal Workers

Bill Raises Hurdle For Illegal Workers




By MIKE SALINERO

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Published: March 26, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - Businesses with state contracts would be required to use an electronic verification system to ferret out illegal immigrants seeking jobs under a bill moving through the Legislature.

House Bill 915, sponsored by Rep. Sandra Adams, R-Oviedo, would require employers who want to work with the state to use the now-voluntary E-Verify database. The free service uses databases of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

"I believe as Floridians and as the state Legislature, we need to ensure that we're employing people to work for the state who have legal authority to work here," Adams told the House Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Employers have been required to verify the immigration status of job applicants since Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. But it can take weeks to verify information on the paper forms used by many employers. Critics of the system also say it is subject to abuse by employers and by illegal immigrants using fake identity cards.

Adams has tried to pass similar legislation for several years, but business groups have opposed it. Rick Watson, a lobbyist for Florida Associated Builders and Contractors, said E-Verify is cumbersome to use and has a high error rate.

The contractors group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce went to court in 2008 to stop an executive order by President George W. Bush that required all federal contractors and subcontractors to clear workers using the verification system. The suit is pending in federal court.

Mike Williams, a lobbyist for the Florida Building and Construction Trades Council, spoke in favor of the bill. Williams, an electrician, said illegal immigrants are taking construction jobs from native-born Americans.

"I've witnessed myself the impact of illegal workers in this country taking jobs from people who should be on the work site - taxpaying citizens of this country," Williams said.

Courtenay Strickland, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, criticized parts of the bill that would require the state to verify the immigration status of anyone getting public benefits. Strickland said federal law already denies major benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps and Supplemental Security Income to illegal immigrants. The requirement would set up a costly state bureaucracy to verify the benefits, Strickland said.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/26 ... l-workers/

Good! We should raise all the "hurdles" we can! These people need to get out of our nation. How many of us would go to someone's nation, knowing how unpopular and how unwanted we were?