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CCH® PAYROLL — 5/1/08

179 immigration bills introduced in the first quarter of 2008

Without the enactment of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level, legislators in 31 states have introduced 179 employment-related immigration bills during the first quarter of 2008, according to an April 24, 2008 report released by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Founded in 1975, the NCSL is a bipartisan organization that provides research and technical assistance on pressing state issues to legislators and staffs of the nation's 50 states, its commonwealths and territories.

Employment often focus of bills

Employment continues to be in the top three areas of immigration reform, with law enforcement and identification documents being the other two. The 31 state legislatures introducing employment-related immigration bills during the first quarter of 2008 were: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

According to the report, state legislatures dealt with a variety of issues in the employment arena, including employer sanctions for hiring undocumented workers and addressing the use of federal employment eligibility verification systems (i.e., E-Verify) by public agencies, private employers or state contractors. Other bills related to immigrants' unemployment compensation, identity theft legislation specific to employment, wage withholding for non-resident aliens and state guestworker programs in Arizona and Colorado. E-Verify is a voluntary, Web-based system operated by US Citizenship and Immigration Services in partnership with the Social Security Administration that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees.

Recent legislation

Recently enacted legislation during the first quarter of 2008 includes the Mississippi Employment Protection Act (S.B. 2988), which among other things requires contractors and subcontractors, including those who contract with the state, to register and participate in E-Verify to verify the work eligibility of all newly-hired employees. In addition, after July 1, 2008, the Act will make it a discriminatory practice for a Mississippi employer to discharge a US citizen or legal permanent resident employee while retaining an illegal alien hired in a comparable position if the employer knows or reasonably knows that the retained employee was undocumented. A "safe harbor" exemption from liability, investigation or suit applies for employers who were enrolled in and used E-Verify. (See story in CCH PAYROLL MANAGEMENT GUIDE Report Letter issue 2038, April 15, 2008.)

Utah's comprehensive immigration bill (S.B. 81) was signed into law on March 13, 2008. Effective July 1, 2009, Utah's law, which has been compared to Oklahoma's comprehensive Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 (H.B. 1804), would require public entities to enroll in E-Verify or another employment verification system to verify the eligibility of their new employees. In addition, contractors may not enter into contracts with the state unless they register with and use a verification system to verify the work eligibility of their employees. Further, it would also be a discriminatory practice under the law for any employer to discharge a US citizen or legal permanent resident employee while retaining an illegal alien hired in a comparable position if the employer reasonably knows that the retained employee was undocumented.

The report was prepared by NCSL's immigration policy project and covers legislation in the areas of education, health, IDs/drivers licenses, public benefits and voting in addition to employment. The report can be found in its entirety at: http://www.ncsl.org/print/immig/immigreportapril2008.pdf. (Immigrant Policy Project, April 24, 2008, Overview of State Legislation Related to Immigrants and Immigration January - March 2008.)

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