HR Initiative Urges Continued Challenge to Arizona Employment Verification Law

Washington, D.C. – The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce today urged continued pursuit of a legal challenge to a new Arizona law requiring all employers to use the federal employment verification system known as “Basic Pilot” (also known as “E-Verify”). The case was dismissed on Friday by the U.S District Court for Arizona on procedural grounds. “Federal laws should preempt state-by-state attempts to control immigration,” said HR Initiative spokesman Mike Aitken, Director of Governmental Affairs, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “A patchwork of contradictory state and local immigration laws is not in the national interest, yet that is just what is happening in Arizona and around the country.” Arizona’s employment verification requirement is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2008. It will require all employers that are located in Arizona, that transact business in Arizona, or that employ one or more persons in Arizona to utilize the Basic Pilot program. Presently, 17 states have enacted eligibility verification laws, yet the requirements are not consistent with one-another. For example, Arizona law mandates employers to participate in the Basic Pilot program by the beginning of 2008, yet Illinois law prohibits employers from participating until the program meets certain benchmarks related to accuracy and reliability. An employer who conducts business in both Illinois and Arizona will find it impossible to comply with both laws. The HR Initiative, representing the nation’s leading human resource organizations – including hundreds of thousands of HR professionals and thousands of U.S. employers from every sector of the economy – has supported the challenge to the Arizona law by filing an amicus curiae brief with the Court in support of the plaintiffs in Arizona Contractors Association et. al v. Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona, and Terry Goddard, Attorney General of Arizona (Case No. CV 07-1355-PHX-NVW). In his dismissal of the lawsuit, the Judge indicated there would be sufficient grounds to pursue the case if it were refilled and brought against Arizona’s 15 County Attorneys, instead of the state’s Attorney General and Governor. The HR Initiative is also supporting a challenge to the constitutionality of the Illinois law – which prohibits participation in Basic Pilot – based on the premise that federal employment verification law must pre-empt state and local laws. The HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce includes: • American Council on International Personnel • College and University Professional Association for Human Resources • Food Marketing Institute • HR Policy Association • International Public Management Association for Human Resources • National Association of Manufacturers • Society for Human Resource Management # # # The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (www.legal-workforce.org) represents human resource professionals in thousands of small and large U.S. employers representing every sector of the American economy. The HR Initiative and its members are seeking to improve the current process of employment verification by creating a secure, efficient and reliable system that will ensure a legal workforce and help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.