Thread: AZ: Proposed employer sanctions top Legislature's immigratio

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6033580

Proposed employer sanctions top Legislature's immigration agenda

PHOENIX -- For a third consecutive year, state lawmakers are trying to lessen Arizona's border woes by pushing proposals aimed at cracking down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.


While similar proposals have been unsuccessful in the past, lawmakers said some of the two dozen immigration bills now being considered at the Legislature stand a better chance this year, because voters in November voiced strong support for having the state chip away at border problems.

Employer sanction proposals sit at the top of lawmakers' immigration agenda. Employers who break federal law by hiring illegal immigrants are blamed for encouraging people to sneak across the border.

One approach would require employers to verify the employment eligibility of workers through the federal government. Another proposal would take it a step further by making employers sign an affidavit saying they don't knowingly have illegal immigrants on their payrolls.

"The winking and nodding is going to stop," said Republican Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, an advocate for tougher immigration enforcement and author of half of the immigration proposals.

Pearce, whose sanctions bill was expected to be the most far-reaching, also has proposed making communities get rid of policies that prohibit police officers from asking the immigration status of people they contact.

Other measures at the Legislature would crack down on day laborers, expand the list of government benefits denied to illegal immigrants and require people to show that they paid taxes on money before it could be wired to another country.

Not all the proposed bills would crack down on immigrants.

One would prohibit prosecutors from charging the customers of immigrant smugglers as conspirators under the state's human trafficking law. The Maricopa County Attorney has used the 2005 law to target those who pay to be brought into the state, angering some lawmakers who said they authored the bill to protect immigrants from abuse by smugglers.

And a proposed ballot measure _ if it makes it through the Legislature _ would seek a repeal of the higher-education provisions of a new law that denies illegal immigrants cheaper in-state tuition and state-provided financial aid at public universities. The law was approved in November with 70 percent of the vote.

While he insisted that immigration enforcement is a responsibility of the federal government, Democratic Rep. Steve Gallardo of Phoenix said the state can supplement federal immigration efforts as long as the state's approach is realistic and makes sense.

"We don't want extreme ideas," said Gallardo, who is among a group of Democratic lawmakers who proposed an immigration bill.

Last year, Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a wide-ranging law that included a provision to set fines for employers who continue to rely on illicit foreign labor after receiving warnings. She had said loopholes in the law allowed businesses to continue operating as if nothing happened even after being warned.

Republican Rep. Bill Konopnicki of Safford, whose bill would require businesses to verify the employment eligibility of workers, said his employer sanctions bill would treat honest businesses fairly and would take aim at those who most egregiously break the rules.

"We have a lot of people proposing stiff penalties who have never run a business," said Konopnicki, who is a businessman.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, who in the past has called for employer sanctions, said such punishments ought to go after businesses that intentionally break the law, though she declined to provide specifics on what she would hope for in such a proposal.

At a recent briefing to reporters, the governor said the current legislative session shouldn't focus solely on immigration.

"This should not be a press briefing solely focused (on immigration) because (Republican lawmakers) are talking about some immigration bills," Napolitano said. "We have transportation. We have water. We have education. We have health care. These are all major issues that state legislatures and governors are responsible for. Immigration is primary a federal issue."

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http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/27864.html

It's all a game for politicians. As if the governor and his mexican government officials didn't know the majority of the farmworkers are illegal aliens. What a bunch of crap, and we the residents have to put up with the crime, shootings, drug users and traffickers, social program frauds and abusers, illiterate students, prison inmates, pregnant teens, and the unemployed.