The Big Story: Employer sanctions disputes expected to continue at Legislature

PHOENIX — A year of argument has done little to quell disputes over how to confront Arizona businesses that employ illegal immigrants.

The wrangling is expected to continue as a new state law takes effect Tuesday that prohibits businesses from knowingly employing illegal immigrants and imposes tough penalties on violators.

As the courts consider a challenge to the law, the Arizona Legislature is poised to pick up the issue again in 2008 — this time to fix perceived shortcomings in the employer sanctions law.

Lawmakers said changes could include heading off expected attempts by some businesses to make end runs around the law, softening penalties against violators and clarifying whether the law applies to new hires or all workers on the payroll.

Attempts also are afoot to gather enough petition signatures to put two employer sanctions proposals on the November ballot.

“Those of us who are hardline anti-illegal immigrant labor are still pleased,” said Republican Rep. John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills, who voted for the law. “Some of the softliners who went along with this because they feared (a stricter ballot measure) may be having buyer’s remorse.”

The law was promoted as an attempt to lessen the economic incentive for immigrants to sneak across the border and to curb Arizona’s role as the busiest illegal gateway into the country.

Under the law, businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants could face a business license suspension lasting up to 10 days. Second-time violators would have their business licenses permanently revoked.

Business groups challenged the law in court, saying it would poison Arizona’s business climate and that cracking down on such hires was the sole province of the federal government.

A federal judge rejected their request to temporarily stop the law from going into effect. A full hearing is set for Jan. 16.

There is disagreement among lawmakers about whether the new law applies only to workers hired in 2008 and thereafter or if all workers in the state fall under its provisions, as the bill’s sponsor now says.

Republican Rep. Bill Konopnicki of Safford, owner of six restaurants and five radio stations in Arizona, said he has come to regret his vote for the law.

His change in position centered on a promise that the law applied only to new hires and that a proposed ballot measure on employer sanctions would go away.

“None of those things turned out to be correct,” Konopnicki said.

Republican Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, author of the law, said it has yet to be dinged by the legal challenge and that the public supports employer sanctions as a way to reduce the costs of a porous border. Pearce said he plans to file a proposal that would prohibit employers from taking illegal workers off their payrolls and then rehiring them as contract workers.

In a similar vein, Kavanagh said he plans to file a bill to confront a problem that hasn’t yet materialized but he suspects is around the corner. He believes dummy companies will be created to supply some contractors with illegal workers so those contractors can be freed of responsibility for their hiring. Kavanagh plans to file a proposal that would require first-time violators to check the employment eligibility of their subcontractors as if they were their own workers.

Democratic Rep. Theresa Ulmer of Yuma, who voted against the restrictions, said she is drafting several proposed fixes, such as one that would say the law applies only to new hires.