Idaho: Immigration bill targeting employers nixed

By SIMMI AUJLA

BOISE, Idaho

Lawmakers voted down a bill Monday that would have required employers to screen workers using a federal background check system amid concerns it would add another burden to business owners.

The Senate State Affairs Committee defeated the measure on 7-2 vote. The bill was aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigrants into the state, and would have put employers who accepted false identification at risk of losing their business licenses.

Despite similar legislation in other states, Idaho lawmakers said the E-Verify system isn't a good fit in a state dominated by small businesses.

"This bill says if I want to hire my son, I have to go through the E-Verify system. I know where he was born. I was there," Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis told Kris Kobach, the lawyer who drafted the legislation. "Help me feel comfortable that this big-state, big-city fix works for my little state."

The defeat is a familiar one for the bill's chief proponent, Sen. Mike Jorgenson. The Hayden Republican has argued unsuccessfully for similar legislation each of the past two years. This year's version is modeled after a 2008 Arizona law.

Jorgenson contends putting more of the onus on employers is the best way to control illegal immigration, which he says takes jobs from citizens and costs the state $200 million annually in health care, education, prison and other expenses.

Several states -- including Arizona, South Carolina and Mississippi -- require businesses to use the federal E-Verify program, and about 184,000 of the nation's 7 million to 8 million employers use it. The Web-based system checks a worker's information against Department of Homeland Security and Social Security databases to determine U.S. employment eligibility.

The program is free to employers. Some states -- including Idaho -- already require state agencies and contractors to use it.

But the bill failed to gain support from some key sectors of the state economy. Lobbyists for Idaho's dairy industry told the committee the E-Verify system would confuse small dairy producers.

"For somebody who hires one or two or three people a year, it's a daunting process," said Ken McClure, lobbyist for Milk Producers of Idaho.

Since Arizona's law took effect two years ago, prosecutors in the state's largest county have suspended only one company's business license for 10 days. Maricopa County prosecutors found that a water amusement park had hired a 36-year-old woman who presented identification listing her age as 62. The county is currently investigating one other company.

Jorgenson's bill is the latest immigration bill to falter in the Idaho statehouse this year. But it's not the last awaiting consideration.

Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Boise, has a bill that would give county prosecutors the authority to go after employers who knowingly accept fake identification from employees. McKenzie says his bill stands a better chance of approval because it includes input from industry groups.