New Jersey state Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D) is introducing legislation that will penalizes firms that “knowingly hire” illegal immigrants.
According to this recent article regarding the initiative: “The measure would require New Jersey businesses to verify the legal status of employees. Violations of the law would be penalized by a 10-day suspension of the business license for the first offense and permanent revocation of the license for the second. If passed, New Jersey would become the second state in the nation to enact such legislation. According the National Conference of State Legislatures, Arizona mandates the federal work authorization database E-Verify, which was formerly known as Basic Pilot.”
This trend at the state and local level is being driven by federal inaction – or the impasse -- on immigration reform. The article notes that, in 2007, “1,562 immigration-related bills were introduced in all 50 states; 240 laws were enacted in 46 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Employment laws accounted for 33 measures in 19 states, including those which disallow tax deductions or workers' compensation for undocumented employees.”
Sweeney syas employers are the bad guys in all of this: "They're cheating the system and driving the costs up for everyone else," he said, according to the article.
Of course, there is no mention of government’s failure in developing a functional system for meeting U.S. employment needs utilizing foreign workers; or the fact that the government has done a lousy job shielding the borders.
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