Hiring illegal immigrants may lead to jail in Utah

[pampango]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHqdn160YTsxDpHU_woS-mj2n3SgD9E422P00

Employers in Utah could be among the first in the country to face criminal charges for failing to verify their workers' immigration status, under a bill passed Friday by a legislative committee that now moves to the full Senate.

Several states require businesses to use the federal E-Verify program, but generally only under threat of financial penalties. In Mississippi, employers who hire illegal immigrants can lose their business license, but illegal immigrants found working there are eligible for a one-year prison sentence. Under the Utah bill, employers who fail to comply could face a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

About 184,000 of the nation's 7 million to 8 million employers use E-Verify, a Web based system that checks a worker's information against Department of Homeland Security and Social Security databases to determine U.S. employment eligibility.

But E-Verify has some widely reported flaws. Illinois lawmakers have already moved to bar employers from using the system, saying its accuracy remains in question. The online tool wrongly clears illegal workers about 54 percent of the time, according to Westat, a research company that evaluated the system for the Homeland Security Department.

[ORDagnabbit]

1. thats awesome! bout time to use the law against employers... Hire Citizens first then immigrant

labor and never hire immigrants in the country illegally.

[The Northerner]

2. My thoughts exactly

[Romulox]

3. Oh Noes! Corporations being forced to follow employment law is like FASCIST or something!

Right OP? :hi:

[pampango]

8. Or it could be those liberal Utah republicans at work again. Let's call it SOCIALISM!

;)

[Romulox]

9. Agreed. And child labor laws are a blantant violation of childrens' right to contract!

It's LIBERTY that these cheap-labor lovin' corporations are fighting for!

[951-Riverside]

4. This is racism!

They're over here being exploited for jobs Americans will do at minimum wage. :sarcasm: :eyes: but in all seriousness I doubt this will go anywhere. The rich white businesses owners who exploit people who are here illegally will simply organize an "immigration" rally and the dopes in government will quickly back down out of fear of being labeled racists.

[TwilightGardener]

5. It's a good idea, let's see if it works, though. I agree that the best

way to deal with illegals is to punish the employers, not demonize the workers. I'll bet some "small fish" employers will have a tough time making it, though, when this takes effect--farming operations, small construction businesses.

[reflection]

6. Who does the jail time?

The CEO, the hiring manager, or some other middle-management person?

[melm00se]

7. big question here

The online tool wrongly clears illegal workers about 54 percent of the time, according to Westat, a research company that evaluated the system for the Homeland Security Department.

OK, so you have a 50/50 chance in getting bad info. If that figure gets placed in front of the jury when an employer is tried, do you think that might raise a reasonable doubt? especially if the employer uses a "I checked" defense?

if employers are going to be held to such a strict accountability penalty, don't you think that there must be a 100% accurate and foolproof way of verifying employment eligibility?

and if there isn't such a tool, how do prevent discrimination? I could see employers saying something along the lines of "I am not going to hire anyone who has an "accent" or the wrong shade of skin to protect myself".

[cascadiance]

10. Of course in California they fired U.S. Attorneys for going after illegal employers...

Carol Lam was supposedly "not doing enough to prosecute illegal immigration cases" as the reason she was fired. Not of course that she brought charges that lead to the prosecutions of Randy Duke Cunningham, Brent Wilkes, and Dusty Foggo... Of course that wasn't the reason Bushco fired her!

But then again she tried to charge the EMPLOYERS in this case of hiring illegal immigrants, ironically the firm that was building a fence along the border!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6626823

A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company's work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico.

After an immigration check in 1999 found undocumented workers on its payroll, Golden State promised to clean house. But when followup checks were made in 2004 and 2005, some of those same illegal workers were still on the job. In fact, U-S Attorney Carol Lam says as many as a third of the company's 750 workers may have been in the country illegally.

Golden State Fence built millions of dollars' worth of fencing around homes, offices, and military bases. Its president and one of its Southern California managers will pay fines totaling $300,000. The government is also recommending jail time for Melvin Kay and Michael McLaughlin, probably about six months.

It is exceptionally rare for those who employ illegal immigrants to face any kind of criminal prosecution, let alone jail time. Earlier this week, for example, immigration raids on six meat-packing plants netted almost 1,300 suspected illegal workers. But no charges were leveled against the company that runs the plants: Swift.

...

Another article on this...

http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-01-13/news/17150501_1_illegal-immigrants-fences-us-mexico-border

Hopefully in Utah, attorneys will enforce the law and not be afraid to get a backlash for doing so.