On January 1st, the toughest immigration law in the country goes in to force in Arizona. The law has two major components. First, employers found to have hired unauthorized workers can be penalized with the loss of their business licenses - essentially the death penalty for a company. Second, employers are required to begin using the E-Verify electronic employment verification system. I have prepared two question and answer documents to assist Arizona companies in understanding their new obligations. The first is an overview of the Arizona law. The second summarizes E-Verify.
There are a number of open questions the answers to which will determine the impact of the new laws. Will employers comply with the new laws or ignore them (including taking employees off the books all together)? Will Arizona rigorously enforce the new laws? Will the federal government be able to handle a massive increase in the number of E-Verify inquiries? With the recent Westat report showing that as many as 10% of foreign born US citizens being identified as illegally present in the US, will the federal government be able to handle a sudden surge in requests to correct problems (and will such incorrectly identified workers be compensated by the federal government since they will suddenly be unable to work ANYWHERE in Arizona and may be rendered unemployable for a potentially lengthy period?). Will there be a mass exodus of unauthorized workers from the state and what will the impact be on an economy with only 3% unemployment? The Washington Post comments on these questions (and the editors of that paper are not very optimistic in their answers.
cost of illegal immigration far outweighs the benefits business get. business are only concerned about cheap labor and profits they make and not you or I.
Posted by: hallie | October 25, 2009 at 02:11 AM
Greg, if you want to teach English, go to school and teach. we are way past using proper english when it comes to illegal immigration.
Arizona is a state of ememgency when it come to illegal aliens.
What do you think we did when we did not have 20 million illegal in this country. business survived. so business leave the state and go to other states because that will draw illegal to those states and soon they wil get fed up and do just as ariz is doing. States do no do anything until they get over run by illegal which bring all sorts of crime, gangs, drugs. my family in Tucson has got to bar up doors and windows and carry fire arms.
Posted by: hallie | October 25, 2009 at 02:07 AM
Greg; Illegal immigration is too important to bet hung up on proper usage of English. Maby is fine with me, Just inforcement our immigration laws. Let state do it and let private citizens do it. Just get it done.
Posted by: hallie | October 25, 2009 at 02:01 AM
cost to much to have them here and it cost too much to get them to leave so they keep coming which is costing too much.
what do we do? Nothing?
Posted by: hallie | October 25, 2009 at 01:57 AM
THE NEW ARIZONA IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT LAW make a presume "cvcs" is supposed to be "services". "United states" is actually a proper noun and should read "United States."There are a number of open questions the answers to which will determine the impact of the new laws. Will employers comply with the new laws or ignore them (including taking employees off the books all together).
mack
Arizona Treatment Centers
Posted by: manoj | July 30, 2008 at 12:05 AM
Craig - "inforce" is actually spelled "enforce". "maby" is actually spelled "maybe". "Its" is actually "It's". "So we pay more sooo what!" is actually two sentences - and one is a question. So it it should read "So we pay more. So what?" I presume "cvcs" is supposed to be "services". "United states" is actually a proper noun and should read "United States." You are in America. Please learn the language. I'm spending my hard earned tax dollars to pay for the education of school children and I expect people educated in this country's schools to be able use proper English.
Posted by: Greg Siskind | January 15, 2008 at 01:20 PM
I don't think some people understand!!!! Americans are fed up! So we pay more soooo what! We are paying way too much already for social cvcs for Illegals who should not be here in the first place. Its worth it for the sake of america to inforce the laws and deal with any backlash that may come.Or maby we should go ahead and rename this country United states of Mexico!
Posted by: craig moss | January 15, 2008 at 10:58 AM
>>When people leave the state, the housing market is going to go down.<<
...which will actually work out well since there won't be workers to build them anyway.
Posted by: Greg Siskind | January 01, 2008 at 04:21 PM
Arizona's economy is going to go down! The immigrant labor force is already embeded in Arizona. When people leave the state, the housing market is going to go down. Sales in other sectors are also going to go down. Other services are going to go up in prices, making Arizona a though place to live. Soon Busineses will start leaving the State.
Posted by: 1930's | January 01, 2008 at 03:34 PM
Thanks.
Posted by: Greg Siskind | December 28, 2007 at 06:37 AM