Tuesday, February 8, 2011

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON WHY SB40 IS BAD

I have briefly discussed Georgia State Senator Murphy's SB40 in my previous blog post, but that description only touches on a couple of points on why this bill is bad to everyone and does nothing to enforce the immigration laws.
Actually, the bill does not specifically name that it mandates the use of E-Verify, but just refers to a "federal work authorization program" which remains unnamed (could be SAVE or another program, who knows), but let's assume E-Verify for argument's sake.
Murphy's anti-bill adds additional administrative document retention requirements on Georgia employers (yes, beyond the federal I-9 requirements of 1 year after termination or three years from date of hire, whichever is later), to require keeping the I-9 and supporting documents for five years. Does he offer some storage solutions with that? Not only this violates federal law and probably invalid, but they cannot enforce it, because the federal government (DHS/ICE in this case) enforces the I-9 compliance and it only bothers with the federal compliance.
Similar clashes with federal law come with his proposal of E-Verify document retention and if it passes this portion will probably be struck down because of the same issue.
The bill exempts employers who filed H-1 and H-2 visas (although no such visas, I'm assuming he meant H-1B, H-2A and H-2B visas)-- which will make many Georgia employers who already employ foreign nationals very happy.
Further, the bill takes a few of the Arizona law provisions (yes, those who have been struck by a Federal Judge as unconstitutional because they contradict federal law), mandating that all aliens carry with them evidence of their immigration status at all times (citing the Alien Registration Act of 1940 that no longer exist because there are no registration requirements).
Another relic from the Arizona bill that found its way to this one is the paperwork searches -- police officers could ask for papers from anyone they have a reasonable cause to suspect to be an "illegal alien", including people stopped for traffic offenses. Police would be able to stop anyone under racial profiling criteria and send them over to ICE to be processed for deportation proceedings. The Arizona judge determined that it burdens on the federal immigration enforcement process and priorities and it also a threat to legal immigrants that could be detained if they do not carry their papers.
As I said before, shame on a so called Republican that all he does is unnecessarily overburden and regulate private businesses and government agencies, in a time where we all could use a little breathing room to grow the economy.

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