BOISE - In a one hour Thursday morning hearing, the House State Affairs Committee heard testimony on House Bill 497 which would penalize businesses that employ illegal aliens. The bill was patterned after legislation first passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2007. Immediately upon passage, the Phoenix business community sued the state of Arizona over passage of the measure in Federal court. In 2008, the law was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
The authority for the legislation comes from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, when Congress created an exception where states could deal with the employment of illegal aliens by denying business licenses to those employers who hire the illegals. According to Rep. Phil Hart, “This is a federal issue, but the feds have allowed states this narrow area of jurisdiction. And because we have a serious problem with illegals (aliens) in Idaho, I believe we need to use every tool that is available to us.”
The legislation took a three strikes you’re out approach. A business that was determined to “knowingly employ an unauthorized alien” would receive a warning. If a second violation occurred within a three year period, any business license could be suspended for up to ten days. And for a third violation in a three year period, any business license could be suspended for up to one year.
“We tried to balance the need to solve our illegal alien problem by removing the magnet of jobs that draws people to Idaho who are here illegally, while at the same time not being so punitive that we are closing down businesses,” said Rep. Hart.
Representative Lynn Luker of Boise made a motion to remove the employment and business license provisions out of the bill, leaving only the part of the bill that dealt with manufacturing and using false identification. That motion died on a 6 to 11 vote. Then Rep. Ken Andrus, a rancher from of Lava Hot Springs, made a motion that successfully killed the bill.
For the third time in three years, similar legislation brought by Rep. Hart has failed to advance out of committee. However, in addition to Arizona, Missouri and South Carolina have enacted similar legislation.
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