Thread: Battles over immigration enforcement continue

December 17, 2007
Battles over immigration enforcement continue

Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief

Legal battles continued over federal and state efforts to crack down on illegal immigration by targeting employers.

Business groups have filed a new lawsuit challenging an Arizona law, scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, that would require employers to use the federal government's E-Verify system to check whether new employees are eligible to work in the U.S.

The E-Verify system compares an individual's Social Security number or visa number with government databases.

Arizona employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants could lose their business licenses for repeat offenses.

Business groups challenged the state law on constitutional grounds, contending only the federal government has the authority to regulate immigration.

"A patchwork of contradictory state and local immigration laws is not in the national interest, yet that is just what is happening in Arizona and around the country," said Mike Aitken, director of governmental affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management.

A federal judge, however, dismissed the original lawsuit challenging Arizona's law on procedural grounds Dec. 7. The judge ruled the plaintiffs should have sued county attorneys, who will enforce the law, instead of state officials.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which was a plaintiff in both the original lawsuit and the new one, said it hopes to win a temporary restraining order preventing the law from taking effect until the court decides on the lawsuit's merits.

Nearly 1,600 immigration-related bills have been introduced this year in state legislatures around the country, said Sharon Tomiko Santos, a Washington state legislator who co-chairs the National Conference of State Legislatures' task force on immigration and the states.

States are stepping in to fill the void created by Congress' failure to address illegal immigration.

These state laws could create major headaches for employers, particularly those that operate in more than state. For example, Arizona requires employers to use the E-Verify system, but Illinois prohibits employers from enrolling in the program until the system becomes more reliable.

"This is not the way to solve the problem," said Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber, which joined the lawsuit challenging the Arizona law, hopes courts will send states a message that they shouldn't pass more immigration laws and send Congress a message that it needs to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation, Donohue said. The chamber will "systematically go after" the most onerous state laws, he said.

The proliferation of state and local laws concerning immigration are causing major problems for home builders, most of whom are small businesses that work in more than one jurisdiction, said Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders.

Many already are struggling due to the housing industry's slump, and the new immigration rules are "helping them to go underwater faster," he said.

The federal Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, filed an appeal Dec. 5 of a federal court injunction that blocked a regulation requiring employers to terminate workers if they can't resolve a discrepancy between the employees' Social Security numbers and government records within 90 days.

The agency also is working on a revised regulation that addresses the problems cited by the court, including the agency's failure to analyze the rule's impact on small businesses.

"By pursuing these two paths simultaneously, my aim is to get a resolution as quickly as possible so we can move the 'no-match' rule forward and provide honest employers with the guidance they need," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

"The only real beneficiaries" of the lawsuit challenging the rule "are employers who would rather close their eyes to cheap and profitable illegal labor than obey the laws of their country," he said.

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These state laws could create major headaches for employers, particularly those that operate in more than state. For example, Arizona requires employers to use the E-Verify system, but Illinois prohibits employers from enrolling in the program until the system becomes more reliable.


This is misleading. We read recently that DHS is suing Illinois who has now backed off from stopping E-Verify. Illinois is going to re-look at this. They have or will send out notice to e-verify users that they will not be prosecuted if they use this program after January 1st.

Do your homework reporter.