Business interests seek employer sanction changes in Arizona

PHOENIX — An Arizona law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants is facing a possible overhaul before any businesses have even been called into court for alleged violations.

A proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot asks voters to revise the nine-month-old employer sanctions law by making changes that supporters say will protect honest businesses and that immigration hard-liners say will weaken a powerful tool against illegal immigration.

The proposed changes include tightening a rule on reporting violations, raising the standard for proving cases and strengthening a legal protection for those who follow the law.

"The current law has gaping holes in it," said Andrew Pacheco, leader of the campaign for Proposition 202, explaining that the law now applies to only licensed businesses and that his proposal would change that.

Maricopa County Andrew Thomas, who has made combating illegal immigration a top priority in his office, said such new rules would make it nearly impossible to bring employer sanctions cases. "Prop. 202 is a fraud on the voters," Thomas said.

The original law, which was intended to lessen economic incentives for immigrant workers to sneak across the border, has brought a chorus of criticism from businesses.

Under the law that took effect Jan. 1, employers who are found to have knowingly made illegal hires face the suspension or revocation of their business licenses. Businesses also are required to verify the employment eligibility of new workers through a federal database.

While prosecutors have yet to file cases against any businesses, the law is credited, in part, with prompting countless illegal immigrants to leave Arizona for other American states or their homelands.

Business and civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit in a bid to overturn the law, but two courts have upheld it.

During the spring, lawmakers amended the law in response to complaints about its shortcomings. Some of the Legislature's revisions were similar to a few parts of Proposition 202.

The common provisions include making the crime of identity theft cover employers who knowingly accept false identification when hiring and imposing penalties for hiring illegal immigrants on a cash-only basis.

Though they supported such provisions, defenders of the law oppose other parts of the ballot proposal.