DHS and Local Efforts Aimed at Employers

Kent Hoover of Bizjournals reports on anticipated surge in employer sanctions enforcement:

The collapse of federal immigration reform means businesses can expect more state and local laws aimed at preventing them from hiring undocumented workers or renting apartments to illegal aliens.

Immigration attorneys also think the Department of Homeland Security will move forward with a proposed federal regulation that would increase a business’ liability for employing workers whose Social Security numbers don’t match government databases.

“There will be mass layoffs as soon as that regulation is published,” said Laura Reiff, an immigration attorney at Greenberg Traurig’s McLean, Va., office and co-chair of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition.

“In Florida, it could be catastrophic,” said Wendy Smith, an employment lawyer at the Tampa office of Fisher & Phillips.

Business groups like EWIC contended immigration reform was needed to fix a dysfunctional system. Employers in many industries can’t find enough legal workers, document fraud makes it hard to determine a worker’s status, and the failure of Congress to address these problems has prompted states and localities to pass their own immigration laws.  Click here for the rest of the story.

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