Suppose you work for a company that
does business in Arizona and California. For simplicity, let’s say your company
is the large grocery chain, Albertson’s.
In Arizona, your entire
company is subject to a “death penalty” law if you knowingly hire unauthorized
aliens on two different occasions. The law in question is
called the Lawful Arizona Workers Act. A sharply divided Supreme Court,
split in a 5-4 vote, ruled that the state law did not interfere with federal
immigration law.
Liberal dissenters argued that the ruling undermined one, uniform set of immigration laws as they relate to employment. Federal law fines employers who violate the law by hiring undocumented workers; only if there is a pattern of violations does the law allow for criminal fines and up to six months in jail. The dissenters’ point: It’s overkill to put an entire company out of business in a state for two violations of immigration law.
Liberal dissenters argued that the ruling undermined one, uniform set of immigration laws as they relate to employment. Federal law fines employers who violate the law by hiring undocumented workers; only if there is a pattern of violations does the law allow for criminal fines and up to six months in jail. The dissenters’ point: It’s overkill to put an entire company out of business in a state for two violations of immigration law.
Other liberals were upset by the
ruling.
But now they have turned the tables in California.
But now they have turned the tables in California.
California recently enacted
Assembly Bill 405. AB 405 applies to private employers—in my example, Albertson’s.
The law bars employers from admitting ICE inspectors to “nonpublic” areas of a jobsite unless the inspectors have “a subpoena or court order,” thus impeding ICE’s surprise workplace raids.
It also requires employers to notify their workers when ICE asks to inspect a company’s employment records—records that may reveal that some employees are in the U.S. without permission. Finally, it provides that employers (who must by federal law verify a worker’s eligibility to work at the beginning of employment) may not re-verify the same worker later.
Violators are subject to a $5,000 fine for the first offense, and $10,000 for each subsequent offense. It’s not the death penalty, as in Arizona, but it, too, has a degree of overkill. For more, click here: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB450
The law bars employers from admitting ICE inspectors to “nonpublic” areas of a jobsite unless the inspectors have “a subpoena or court order,” thus impeding ICE’s surprise workplace raids.
It also requires employers to notify their workers when ICE asks to inspect a company’s employment records—records that may reveal that some employees are in the U.S. without permission. Finally, it provides that employers (who must by federal law verify a worker’s eligibility to work at the beginning of employment) may not re-verify the same worker later.
Violators are subject to a $5,000 fine for the first offense, and $10,000 for each subsequent offense. It’s not the death penalty, as in Arizona, but it, too, has a degree of overkill. For more, click here: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB450
Whatever is an optimal immigration
policy, holding private employers hostage to severe consequences for
hiring undocumented workers (Arizona) or allowing ICE on the their property (California) is blaming
the wrong person—the employer—for a much bigger problem created by forces far
beyond their control. Sad to say, other red states are
copying Arizona, and blue states are copying California.
PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL FELL, ARTIZAN SYNDICATE
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