Employer sanctions will slow economy

From the East Valley Tribune

Arizona has started testing a widely held belief that Americans are willing to endure higher consumer costs and economic hardships as the price required to improve border security and to drive away illegal immigrants.

The state’s new employer sanctions law went into effect on New Year’s Day, empowering county prosecutors for the first time to hold accountable businesses that knowingly hire foreign citizens who don’t have permission to work here.

It’s rather unclear how or when the law actually will be enforced. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his 14 counterparts around the state have provided few details about what they will do, other than to tell a federal judge they do not expect any cases to arise before Feb. 1.

We do know many immigrants, both legal and illegal, are assuming the law will effectively restrict their ability to find and hold a job. An unknown number of such immigrants already have left Arizona to search elsewhere and that process is likely to accelerate in the coming days.

That alone would make the employer sanctions law a clear triumph for its supporters, if Arizona had a sizeable pool of American-born residents ready to take over those vacant jobs. But economists who don’t have a political agenda strongly agree that no such replacement pool exists.