Editorial: Sanctions law needs guest-worker provision

Arizona’s employer sanctions law went into effect Tuesday, the result of Washington’s inability to deal with the raging issue of illegal immigration.

From the Nogales border, to the deserts surrounding Green Valley, to the streets of Phoenix, the fallout from illegal immigration has left Arizonans exhausted and perplexed.

Arizona politicians, feeling the wrath of constituents, had to do something. Voters want tax dollars to build schools, roads and public projects and not to subsidize education, medical care and low-income housing for illegals.

One of the state’s solutions was the employer sanctions law, which penalizes companies for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. A first offense leads to a suspended business license. A second offense brings possible revocation the business license, an extreme measure that has led to unsuccessful legal challenges since the law was signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano last year.

The premise of the law is clear. If the job market dries up, illegal immigrants will go home and stay home. They’ll tell their friends and family to go to California or Texas for work, not Arizona.

Arizona has been a fertile place for illegals to work the last two decades, especially in agriculture and construction. Employers have used them to deliver food, build housing and fuel explosive growth. Arizonans have benefited from their labor, but for some strange reason, they don’t want to find reasonable accommodations for them to stay here, starting with a guest-worker program.

The impact will be severe, with businesses struggling short term to find workers. Orders will go unfilled. Homes will take 12 months to build instead of six or nine. Illegal immigrants comprise about 10 percent of Arizona’s workforce (300,000 or 3 million workers) by most estimates. Even if the law forces more than half off the payroll, it will be a staggering undertaking to replace them.

There are shortcomings with the employer sanctions law, starting with the lack of a guest-worker provision and including a lack of subpoena power for local prosecutors attempting to enforce it. It’s also unclear to us whether the law applies to new hires or all workers on the payroll.

Many business leaders are lobbying to soften the law. As a result, attempts are afoot to put two employer sanctions proposals on the November ballot. Hardliners fear legislators will weaken the law, necessitating ballot propositions to carry out the will of the people.

The disagreement over whether the new law applies only to new workers, or whether it applies to all workers, is creating the most controversy at the moment. Republican Rep. Bill Konopnicki of Safford, owner of six restaurants and five radio stations, 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.

We doubt legislators will change the sanctions contained in the law. They will clarify whether it applies to all workers will put more teeth into enforcement. Efforts to let second-time violators face a judge, instead of automatic revocation of a business license, will fail.

“Any legislator who attempts to weaken the law and give employer amnesty will be voted out of office, I can almost guarantee you that,” said Rep. Pearce, R-Mesa, author of the law.

In Pima County, officials believe the law applies to all workers, so the they have started to review right-to-work documentation forms for 7,000 employees. The so-called “I-9” forms show which documents an employer has reviewed before hiring the worker.

One prosecutor in Pima County has been assigned to pursue cases under the new law. Detectives already assigned to the County Attorney’s Office will investigate credible allegations of violations of the new law.

Because the law doesn’t provide prosecutors subpoena power, Pima County will rely on “request letters” and “detectives knocking on doors” to investigate complaints.

Arizonans have a right to put upset over Washington’s failure to enforce the border and stop drug runners and illegals from showing up on their doorstep. The state remedy will step up enforcement and drive out illegal workers.

As with any major change, Arizonans need to be ready to face the consequences. A worker shortage is the immediate concern. Long-term problems include businesses moving out of state. Another terrible side effect will be the unwarranted suspicion the law casts on Hispanics.

Not every problem in Arizona can be traced to illegal immigration, as hardliners seem to suspect. Still, Arizonans want something done, not just hot air from Washington.

This year in Arizona will be remembered as a time of great transition in the battle over immigration. We also hope it’s a year it becomes evident that this country desperately needs a guest-worker program.

Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Respond by e-mailing letters@gvnews.com.