Nebraska would rev up role in curbing undocumented workers under bill targeting employers

Yahoo

27-01-2025

In this aerial view, Mexican immigration officials and police escort deportees after they were sent back into Mexico on Jan. 22, 2025, as seen from Nogales, Arizona. U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders on his first day in office declaring a state of emergency at the U.S. southern border, halting asylum claims and launching a campaign of mass deportations. (Photo by)
LINCOLN — Nebraska would step up its role against illegal immigration under a newly proposed state law requiring businesses with at least 25 workers to use an online system aimed at ferreting out undocumented workers.
State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, under Legislative Bill 532, wants to create graduated state penalties, including suspension of a business license, for employers that don't partake in the E-Verify program to check an applicant's eligibility to work and that knowingly hire people unauthorized to work in the United States.
Furthermore, the measure calls upon the Nebraska Department of Labor to develop and carry out random audit inspections and expose violators using a public-facing database.
'We're saying that every business should be doing this,' Kauth, chair of the Legislature's Business and Labor Committee, said of the electronic verification. 'I want them to do the right thing.'
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 makes it unlawful under federal law to knowingly employ undocumented workers. Arizona in 2008 became the first state to require E-Verify as a further deterrent, using revocation of a license to do business in the state as a hammer, and some states and cities have followed suit.
Kauth said her proposal was inspired by constituent concerns, but that her intent is not only to curb the undocumented workforce. She sees it as protection for vulnerable workers who may be taken advantage of by employers because of legal status.
Pillen orders Nebraska agencies to fall in line with Trump immigration crackdown
The proposal comes as Gov. Jim Pillen issued a directive to state government agencies and law enforcement officials to adhere to President Donald Trump's executive orders cracking down on illegal immigration and border security. Trump's executive orders have created fear and concern in many communities. His effort to roll back birthright citizenship already faces legal challenges.
Lawyers in Nebraska who work in immigration and labor law fields question the effectiveness of a state E-Verify push. Currently, mandatory E-Verify checks in Nebraska apply to a smaller group: public contractors and employers that receive tax incentives from the state.
The Internet-based system is set up to compare and match information provided by a job applicant with records available to the Social Security Administration and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, essentially verifying a person's status to work. It's a free and fast service, according to a federal government website promoting E-Verify.
But a major criticism of the electronic verification system is that workers using fraudulent or borrowed identities can and have evaded detection, said Amy Peck, who manages the immigration practice of Jackson Lewis law firm.
Of LB 532, Peck said: 'Will it solve the illegal immigration problem for employers? No. Does it make everyone feel good? Maybe.'
Daniel Martin DeLoa, a trial attorney at Omaha-based Pesek Law, sees the Kauth proposal as opening the door to potential selective enforcement and posing a barrier to doing business in Nebraska.
He views the legislative proposal more as a show of support for the priorities of the president.
'This is one of many examples we will see when the Nebraska Legislature expresses clear agreement and alignment with the policies and priorities of the new Trump administration,' Martin DeLoa said.
Under the Kauth proposal:
An employer must verify a new hire's work eligibility using E-Verify or a similarly recognized program by the federal government. If the state labor commissioner detects noncompliance, the business has a certain amount of time to contest. Penalties include probation of a business' operating license or, for repeat violations, suspension of the license.
Employers that knowingly employ an unauthorized immigrant worker face suspension of their business license. The license can be reinstated if the employer fires the worker in question or pays the cost of either the Labor Department's investigation or $1,000. Suspensions are longer with repeat violations.
A business that 'in good faith' uses E-Verify is presumed not to be in violation, subject to rebuttal by evidence. And an employer who fires a worker to comply with the statute won't be subject to a civil action for wrongful termination of the employee.
The state Labor Department, in administering a statewide random auditing program, gains the authority to enter a business at 'reasonable times' and question bosses and workers, examine and photograph relevant records.
Bryan Slone, chief executive of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, said that many businesses in Nebraska already use E-Verify.
While the chamber has not yet examined the bill, or taken a position, its leaders tend to take a practical point of view, he said.
One problem, Slone said, is that there is not a consistent approach to worker verification among all states and cities and, generally, a patchwork of regulations hampers business.
Some Nebraska businesses also have employees in multiple states, he noted.
'It means employers have to keep track of all these different provisions in different jurisdictions,' he said. 'It's always better to have uniform federal rules from a compliance standpoint.'
From a broader perspective, he said, businesses want a better federal immigration system that processes work visas faster and in ways that provide more legal workers to U.S. employers struggling with a shortage of applicants.
'This is nothing the State Legislature can fix,' he said, but it is a priority for an alliance of Nebraska organizations including the Nebraska Chamber.
Kauth said she recognizes that a legislative proposal is a work in progress, and she welcomes input from taxpayers and others during public hearings.
'We're going to find out what people think,' she said. 'Perhaps it's just the first step in, How do we make it better?'
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