Blogdolfo

By Adolfo Flores

Civil rights groups are awaiting a court decision to determine whether a planned employee verification program in Arizona to determine workers’ legal status is constitutional. A decision on the constitutionality of the Legal Arizona Workers Act is expected within the first two weeks of December. The law would go into effect Jan. 1, 2008.

“The judge might wait until the act goes into effect to come to a decision,” said Dan Pochoda, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.

It would require businesses to check employees’ work authorization status by using the federal verification database E-Verify, until recently known as the Basic Pilot program.

Businesses that commit two violations — hiring someone ineligible to work — within a three-year period would have their licenses revoked.

The suit was filed on behalf of Arizona groups Chicanos Por La Causa and Somos América in September by the Arizona ACLU, National Immigration Law Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Altshuler Berzon law firm.

The organizations claim the Act would punish businesses by requiring them to use a flawed system. They also maintain only the federal government can punish employers for knowingly hiring unauthorized workers. It is not mandatory under federal law for businesses to use E-Verify.

Advocates claim that one in ten legally authorized workers are initially categorized by the system as ineligible, citing findings from Westat, a private research corporation.

“The U.S. government hasn’t made the Basic Pilot system mandatory because the database’s information is highly unreliable,” said ACLU attorney Omar Jadwat.

The civil rights groups claim the law would lead employers to use racial profiling.

“Rather than run the risk of being shut down forever, employers will simply avoid
hiring people they think are immigrants, authorized or not,” said MALDEF attorney Kristina Campbell.

(As published in Hispanic Link Weekly Report on Nov. 26, 2007)