Arizona enacts tough laws on verifying immigration for 2008

Beginning Jan. 1, 2008, Arizona employers must verify their employees are “present in the country legally.” Businesses caught employing an illegal workforce face suspensions of their business licenses.

A second offense may result in the “business death penalty” -- permanent revocation of an employer’s licenses to do business in the state.

“The Arizona legislation is some of the most far-reaching and troubling state legislation yet,” said Craig Regelbrugge, vice president of government relations at American Nursery & Landscape Association.

“It essentially mandates electronic eligibility verification while doing nothing to provide access to a legal workforce. If implemented as written, Arizona green-industry employers will face this Hobson’s choice: Fire much of your workforce, or put your head in the sand and face losing your business license,” Regelbrugge said.

Gov. Janet Napolitano signed the bill after Congress failed to enact immigration reform. She’s also critical of what she calls “defects” in the bill.

She may call a special session of the Arizona State Legislature to repair the bill’s flaws.

Those flaws include: Lack of critical infrastructure protection; a blanketed revocation provision that could shut down an entire operation instead of one location; lack of funding; and lack of discrimination protection.

Under the new law, dubbed the Legal Arizona Workers Act, the attorney general’s office must establish a new database and investigate complaints with a $100,000 budget, according to the governor’s office. And only $70,000 was appropriated to notify employers of the change in the law.

“Immigration is a federal responsibility, but I signed HB 2779 because it is now abundantly clear that Congress finds itself incapable of coping with the comprehensive immigration reforms our country needs,” Napolitano said in a released statement. “I signed it, too, out of the realization that the flow of illegal immigration into our state is due to the constant demand of some employers for cheap, undocumented labor.”

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For more: Arizona Governor’s Office, (800) 253-0883; www.governor.state.az.us. Craig Regelbrugge, ANLA, (202) 789-2900; cregelbrugge@anla.org.