BOISE, ID – The Idaho Senate on Thursday approved a bill to require state and local governments, and large businesses that contract with them, to use E-Verify.
The bill advanced amid other proposals this legislative session for more sweeping requirements around private employers using the federal program to check employee work authorization.
Bill sponsor Sen. Mark Harris, R-Soda Springs, likened the bill to letting an “engine warm up,” by testing out a requirement to use the federal work authorization tool without broadly affecting private businesses.
“Let’s see if it works,” Harris said on the Senate floor. “It’s a start. We don’t want to mash the gas pedal too hard and ruin something.”
Senate Bill 1247 would require all public entities, at the state and local level, to use E-Verify when hiring new employees. Private employers that contract with state and local governments would also need to use the tool if that business employs 150 or more people and is valued at least at $100,000.
The bill will go to the House for another public hearing in a committee, and if passed by the committee, a debate and vote on the House floor.
Legislators debate E-Verify bill on Idaho Senate floor
Senate members voted 27-7, with one member absent, to approve the bill with bi-partisan support and opposition.
Nampa Republican Sen. Ben Adams spoke against the bill, arguing that requirements around E-Verify would encourage identity fraud. He said that the system does not flag if a worker isn’t authorized to work in the U.S. if the worker used identification for a real person who is documented.
“We may very well end up with a whole new industry in the state of Idaho that is not legal, and it will be expanded because of legislation that we may pass in this body based on flawed legislation at the federal level,” Adams said.
Adams joined Sens. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d’Alene; Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian; Doug Okuniewicz, R-Hayden; Ali Rabe, D-Boise; Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth; Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, in voting against the bill.
Another Nampa Republican, Sen. Brian Lenney said he “wouldn’t get in the way” of the bill passing, but wanted further-reaching requirements around private industries using E-Verify. He highlighted a recent press conference from leaders in Idaho’s agriculture, dairy, construction and service industries, in which they released a report outlining detrimental economic impacts if a large sector of the undocumented workforce is deported.
“I think they meant it as a warning,” Lenney said. “I took it kind of as a to-do list. They just sat there and told us which industries run on illegal labor, out-loud, on purpose, mostly ag, construction, service, stuff like that.”
Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, said that immigration is a federal issue, but the bill takes a “measured approach while we give some time to see what the federal government is going to do.”
Idaho legislators proposed more broad E-Verify requirements this session
Reps. Dale Hawkins, R-Fernwood, and Kyle Harris, R-Lewiston, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would make it a misdemeanor crime for employers to knowingly hire or continue to employ workers who aren’t authorized to work in the U.S. House Bill 700 would make it an “affirmative defense” from prosecution that the employer used E-Verify.
Idaho industry leaders push back on slate of legislative proposals to address immigration
The bill was referred to the House Business Committee and may return for a full public hearing.
Reps. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Jaron Crane, R-Nampa, introduced House Bill 704, on Tuesday, which would add to Idaho’s employment laws to prohibit employers from knowingly hiring undocumented workers. The bill would allow enforcement by the Idaho attorney general through a civil lawsuit.
This bill was also referred to the House Business Committee and could return for a full public hearing.
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