UTAH SENATE COMMITTEE PASSES E-VERIFY MANDATE BILL
SB851 passes at the committee level. The bill would mandate all Utah employers use E-Verify or face losing a business license and possibly a criminal charge. The criminal sanction may be stripped away due to fears it would cause the courts to step in.
A proposal to require all Utah businesses to verify employees' legal right to work has earned approval from a Senate committee, but a criminal penalty attached to the mandate will likely be stripped away before it goes before the full Senate.
SB251, sponsored by Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, would require that all companies in the state utilize federal electronic screening programs to ensure any new hires may work in the country legally. He said the bill will create jobs by forcing undocumented workers elsewhere.
"This bill will give a lot more jobs to our work force because, if a person is here from wherever on Earth … if they can't get a job because of E-Verify (federal electronic screening system), they're going to leave the state."
Buttars constructed the bill so that a business that failed to comply with the requirement would face a variety of penalties, including losing any license issued by the state; being banned from state contracts; and a possible class B misdemeanor, a criminal charge that carries a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
Utah is looking to expand its E-Verify rule beyond government contractors to include all employers in the state. SB251, sponsored by Senator Chris Buttars (R-West Jordan) would require all employers to use E-Verify or face loss of a business license and prosecution as a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1000 fine.
Critics of the measure have already criticized the measure as violating a recent 10th Circuit opinion on Oklahoma's sanctions law. That law did not contain a criminal penalty, something that is arguably pre-empted by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
E-VERIFY FAILS TO CATCH HALF OF ILLEGALLY PRESENT WORKERS
A new Westat report (commissioned by DHS) shows that identity theft presents a major gap in E-Verify's ability to identify illegally present immigrants. The report also shows E-Verify still only has a 93% accuracy rate for legal workers. And until the program is much more accurate and Congress gives adequate protections to workers objecting to an E-Verify non-confirmation, the program's expansion should not be promoted.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced its intent to publicly display information on businesses using E-Verify on searchable areas of its web site. According to the DHS, the release of this information is allowed under the terms noted in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which must be executed by all employers enrolling in the E-Verify program. A careful reading of the MOU reveals that an employer must agree that E-Verify is not confidential information and may be disclosed as authorized or required by law and DHS or SSA policy, including but not limited to, Congressional oversight, E-Verify publicity and media inquiries, determinations of compliance with Federal contractual requirements, and responses to inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Presumably, the disclosure of this information on the DHS web site falls under the very wide scope of “DHS policy.”
In particular, DHS may post an employer’s registered business name, contact address, workforce size, employee verification option (all new hires or entire workforce), and overall E-Verify volume (number of queries). Now more than ever, employers registering as federal contractors should be vigilant in following all of the E-Verify rules, especially since their hiring activity and other information may now be subject to increased public scrutiny.
This E-Verify announcement is currently available on the E-Verify home page as well as the alert section of employers’ E-Verify dashboard.
BALTIMORE RESTAURANT OWNER CHARGED WITH HARBORING ILLEGAL ALIENS
Prosecutors are accusing a Baltimore-area restaurant owner of harboring illegal alien employees. From the AP:
Federal prosecutors say a Columbia woman has been charged with importing and harboring illegal immigrants who worked at her Hanover restaurant. The U.S. attorney's office said 54-year-old Yen Wan Cheng was arrested Tuesday and made an initial appearance Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Prosecutors said Cheng housed the illegal immigrants in a home she owns in Columbia and transported them to the restaurant where they worked, the Red Parrot Asian Bistro. The U.S. attorney's office says she faces up to three years for employing illegal immigrants and five years each on various charges of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants.
MINNESOTA HOUSE SLIPS E-VERIFY PROVISION IN TO BUDGET BILL
NumbersUSA reports that the Minnesota State House included a provision in a budget bill requiring companies contracting with government agencies use E-Verify.
GEORGIA COUNTY QUESTIONS HOW ILLEGALLY PRESENT WORKERS HELPED BUILD COURTHOUSE
Cobb County, Georgia officials are complaining that illegally present workers helped build the $63 million county courthouse despite Georgia's tough employer sanctions law. The explanation lies in the fact that subcontractors are not subject to the E-Verify contractor rule.
At 93-3, the vote was not exactly close. State and local government contractors would need to use E-Verify or face a five year bar on winning contracts if House Bil 321 eventually becomes law. The bill still needs a vote in the state's Senate.
ICE has announced that Cincinnati-based Koch Foods was fined $536,046 for I-9 paperwork violations. The company had previously been the subject of a worksite raid that resulted in the arrests of 161 workers. The fine in this case was the result of the review of documents seized in that raid.
UTAH SANCTIONS BILL COULD BE IMPACTED BY OKLAHOMA CASE
Legislators in Utah are worried that they may need to change their law to comply with the new 10th Circuit case invalidating portions of the Oklahoma employer sanctions law.
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