IDAHO LAWMAKER PUSHES FOR EMPLOYER COMPLIANCE LEGISLATION
Idaho State Representation Mike Jorgenson has introduced a bill that would punish employers of illegally present workers. The bill would make it a misdemeantor if an employer is found to have hired an immigrant worker. Jorgenson received assistance from anti-immigrant law professor Kris Kobach who has been responsible for many anti-immigrant bills introduced around the country.
ARIZONA SENATE PANEL APPROVES BILL TOUGHENING E-VERIFY PENALTIES
The Arizona Senate's Public Safety and Human Resources Committee has passed a measure by a 4-3 margin that would make it a felony if an employer fails to use E-Verify. E-Verify is currently mandated in the state, but the penalty is loss of a business license.
INDIANA STATE SENATOR PUSHING AGAIN FOR SANCTIONS BILL
State Senator Mike Delph (R-Carmel) is introducing for the third time a bill that would mandate the use of E-Verify by government employers and contractors.
Two Arizona legislators say money earmarked for enforcement of the state's 2-year-old employer-sanctions law will be drastically cut for fiscal 2010.
As budget discussions resume at the Capitol, Senate Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce and House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh said Wednesday that Maricopa County's amount will be cut in half and Arizona's other 14 counties will receive no money.
These cuts come in the wake of an Arizona Republic investigation in November that found at least $1.44 million in enforcement funds was sitting idle as prosecutors from nine counties said the money was not spent because there have been so few complaints about employers violating the law.
Maricopa County is now the only county in Arizona scheduled to receive state employer-sanction funds this fiscal year. The previous two years, the state distributed $2.43 million annually to all 15 counties, with larger ones getting more money.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) is running for governor of her state and yesterday she revealed some of her immigration plans were she elected. Among them is an idea to require state employees to be run through E-Verify.
A top manager at Agriprocessors Inc. pleaded guilty Monday to a document-fraud conspiracy charge for helping illegal immigrants at the plant secure fake work papers.
Brent Beebe, 52, of Postville admitted that he played a role in the massive immigrant-harboring scheme at the eastern Iowa kosher meat plant. Prosecutors accused the former beef-kill supervisor of securing a $4,500 loan from then-vice president Sholom Rubashkin, which was used to help 19 illegal workers obtain fraudulent work documents.
The fake documents were delivered to the plant on May 11, 2008, one day before federal agents raided the slaughterhouse and detained 389 immigrant workers.
Beebe will remain free on bond before his sentencing in Cedar Rapids, prosecutors said in a news release. A sentencing date is not set.
Beebe faces a maximum five-year prison sentence, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special court assessment and three years of probation.
The Social Security Administration failed to perform required verifications of the Social Security numbers of 19 percent of its own new hires during a recent 18-month period, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general, Patrick O'Carroll Jr.
The SSA also improperly screened the identities of 75 volunteers, job candidates and existing employees and was either too early or too late in verifying the eligibility of 49 percent of its new hires, according to the audit of Jan. 6.
SSA officials asked to review some of the findings with the IG, and agreed with all the recommendations for improvements.
Federal prosecutors say a Warrendale massage parlor was harboring and employing illegal aliens from China, and want the business to forfeit nearly $6,000 seized in a raid.
The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a motion this week seeking to make Li Hong's China Massage Integrated Bodywork forfeit $5,985 that was seized in an August immigration raid of the business at the corner of Warrendale Bayne Road and Northgate Drive.
According to the filing, the business was under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which said the business, its owner and others generated 'thousands of dollars of illegal proceeds' by knowingly hiring illegal aliens, including illegal aliens from China. They were living on the premises, the court papers said.
A large Brewster tree fruit company recently fired an undisclosed number of employees after federal immigration authorities warned that some workers were unauthorized to work in the United States.
Gebbers Farms said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials informed the company that some of its employees were unauthorized to work in the U.S. based on documents provided by the employees on employment eligibility forms, called I-9 forms.
Gebbers released the statement Tuesday. It was dated Dec. 28.
As a result of the contact with ICE, the company fired some employees. Employers who knowingly employ illegal workers are subject to fines.
HERNANDO, COUNTY FL COMMISSIONER CALLS FOR E-VERIFY MANDATE
The Tampa Tribunereports that Hernando County Commissioner Rose Rocco is pushing for a mandate that employers doing business with the county use E-Verify.
A Honolulu federal court jury on Wednesday acquitted two managers of an Oahu agricultural company on felony charges of intentionally hiring illegal workers from Mexico.
The case of David Kato and Glen Kelley McCaig, both managers at The Farms Inc. in West Oahu, stretches back to early 2008 and marked one of the first Hawaii cases in which federal prosecutors attempted to hold employers responsible for employing illegal workers.
Investigations into the The Farms Inc. began in early 2008 and resulted in an immigration raid at the Oasis apartment complex in Waipahu that July, where 43 workers were arrested.
Kato and McCaig were arrested in December 2008 and charged with at least a dozen felony counts of fraudulently filling out federal I-9 forms and knowingly recruiting and hiring illegal workers by helping them with travel and living arrangements.
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