Yuma senator speaks on border protection

August 14, 2008 - 7:11PM
BY JOYCE LOBECK, SUN STAFF WRITER

The effort continues to come up with workable solutions to securing the nation's borders while ensuring agriculture and other industries have an adequate - and legal - work force, local contractors were told.

Speaking to the Yuma Southwest Contractors Association during its quarterly luncheon Thursday, state Sen. Amanda Aguirre summarized activity in this year's Legislature that amended a controversial employer sanctions law passed last year but failed to act on a bill to establish a guest worker program in Arizona.

"How to protect our borders ... is one of the hottest issues our nation has faced in the last five years," Aguirre said. "We have to control our border and illegal crossings."

At the same time, having enough workers is a big issue for farmers, the hospitality industry and other businesses, she noted.

Senate Bill 1508 was an effort to meet that need by authorizing an Arizona temporary worker program to provide foreign workers for employers who were experiencing a labor shortage, she said.

Unfortunately, the bill died on the last day of the drawn out legislative session after lawmakers had finally passed a budget bill and were in no mood to continue the session, Aguirre said.

However, she expects the bill will be resurrected next year.

More successful was an effort to amend the Legal Arizona Workers Act, enacted in 2007 in an effort to cut down on the employment of illegal workers by rescinding business licenses of businesses found to be in violation.

The amendment made several changes to that act, Aguirre said. For one thing, it clarified that the act only applied to workers hired after Jan. 1, 2008. It also stipulates that probation applies only to the business location where the unauthorized worker was hired and not to other locations the owner may have.

In addition, it addressed concerns about racial profiling in the enforcement of the act by prohibiting the investigation of complaints based solely on race, color or national origin, Aguirre said.

She also said that while there still are some gaps in the government's E-Verify system used by employers to confirm the legal status and identification of their new hirees, "the program has been improved."

The original act stated that employers who used E-Verify would be presumed to be in compliance with the law.

Aguirre said she is unaware of anyone in the Yuma area to be found in violation of the law. But she encourages all businesses to use E-Verify.

Bobbi Dawson, administration manager for Hunter Employment, agreed, saying that agency has been using the E-Verify system and its predecessor for a number of years.

"We've used it to verify over 7,000 people and it has worked well for us."

Dawson said anyone who would like some help with the system is welcome to come by the office, 2450 S. 4th Ave., Suite 104.


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