Killed Bill Sought to Punish Employers for Hiring Illegal Immigrants
Reported by: Lauren Trager, KARK 4 News
Friday, Feb 13, 2009 @04:29pm CST


Sometimes it's not legislation that passes at the state Capitol---but what doesn't that causes controversy.

Today the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental affairs heard testimony for an hour about House Bill 1383--and ultimately decided to kill it.

The bill focuses on an area of illegal immigration many people feel strongly about-worker's status in sectors like construction and manufacturing.

It attempted to punish contractors who hire undocumented workers. The proposal would have given the state contractor's licensing board the authority to investigate contractor's worker's status and revoke or suspend a contractor's license or fine them, if they knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

"I think the hiring of workers without documentation is misconduct and I think the agency should investigate when that misconduct occurs and not necessarily rely on the federal government to bring criminal charges and then take action on a contract," said Representative Jim Nickels of Sherwood.

But even the state's licensing board opposed the bill saying their investigators weren't trained to be immigration agents.

Representative Nickels says he'll try to bring up the issue again.

Meanwhile, another bill cracking down on illegal immigration was filed in the House today.

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/news ... cid=190892