A tough, new law on illegal immigration in Arizona is being challenged in federal court today.
The Legal Arizona Workers Act prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal aliens and requires the state attorney general and the county attorneys to investigate complaints about employers who do so.
A federal district court in Phoenix will hear arguments by the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund challenging the law.
Those groups say the law will lead to discrimination against the foreign-born and punishes businesses by "improperly requiring participation in a flawed federal work authorization verification database."
The new law was signed by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on July 2 and is scheduled to go into affect Jan. 1. In a written statement accompanying the bill, she said she signed the act because Congress had failed miserably in its attempts to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
"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," she said. "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."
The law requires employers to verify employment eligibility through a federal database and says that those found to knowingly hire illegal aliens face criminal penalties up to and including suspension or termination of the company's business license.
The suit claims that the law amounts to a "state employer sanctions law that imposes penalties far beyond what the federal government allows."
It said the law would close down any business that has committed two violations of hiring unauthorized workers in a three-year period, and requires all Arizona businesses to check their employees' work authorization status through a "flawed federal verification database."
It said the database is "rife with errors," noting that Congress has made its use voluntary to "avoid putting authorized workers at risk of termination and putting lawfully operating businesses in danger of sanctions."
— Jerry Seper, national reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (1)
AMNESTY CONSIDERATIONS
It is very economically advantageous to use cheap Mexican seasonal agricultural guest workers; it is very socially and economically disadvantageous to let them stay after the crop is harvested.
When seasonal guest workers do return to Mexico at end of the growing season, they return with money and experience, to contribute to the development of Mexico; and each year, when a new group of seasonal guest workers comes, they are eager to work for the same low non-citizen wages.
And, when they return to Mexico at end of the growing season, they do not drive down the wages of American workers, by competing for jobs in landscaping, construction, sanitation, and housekeeping; and they do not use American governmental social services.
When seasonal guest workers come from all of the countries of Latin America, on a strict quota system, then every country benefits, not Mexico exclusively; and when they are well treated, the experience is mutually positive.
Mexico is land rich in natural resources; what makes it so socially and economically retarded are its Mexican People; and wherever they immigrate they bring their deplorable civilization with them. It is so inferior than none of them want to return to it.
The Mexican dream of regaining political control over Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California is America's worst nightmare. Starting at all of the border towns, and spreading northward throughout America, like cancers, are thousands of deplorable Mexican neighborhoods.
With each deportation America looks, smells, and sounds less like socially and economically deplorable Mexico. America is presently occupied by 12-15 million Mexicans.
With the deportation of all the illegal immigrants, students will again be able to get good paying summer jobs, to learn responsibility and earn their way through college; blue-collar wages will rise; border towns will not be slums; Spanish will not be a second language; crime will go down; hospitals and prisons will not be overcrowded.
When all of the illegal aliens are deported, the Neo-Lib Democrats and Neo-Con Republicans will lose millions of political supporters, and the vast donations that they receive from the Mexican Lobby; and, those American businesses that exploit cheap Mexican labor will lose their illegal competitive advantages.
No advanced civilization in the World can coexist side by side with a retarded civilization, without a great wall or fence, strict guest labor laws, and armed border guards.
Posted by Jeugenen | December 1, 2007 9:47 PM