Civil Rights Coalition Argues Arizona Employer Sanctions Law Is Illegal
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona, the National
Immigration Law Center (NILC), the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund (MALDEF), and the law firm of Altshuler Berzon filed a lawsuit
challenging Arizona's employer sanctions law, the Legal Arizona Workers Act, in
federal court in December 2007 on behalf of Valle del Sol, Chicanos por la
Causa, and Somos America, three Arizona-based organizations. The coalition
charges that the new law is preempted by federal immigration law and the U.S.
Constitution. On September 17, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit declined to overturn the law but expressly left open the possibility of
further challenges.
The act introduced a new state law that regulates employment based on work
authorization status — even though there is a comprehensive federal law on the
same topic. The act unlawfully seeks to impose sanctions far beyond what the
federal government allows by completely closing down any business that,
according to the state, has committed two violations in a three-year period. In
addition, the act requires all Arizona businesses to check their employees' work
authorization status by using the flawed federal Basic Pilot program (recently
renamed e-Verify). The Basic Pilot system, which the federal government
established as a voluntary, experimental, and temporary system to test the
concept of electronic employee verification, is rife with errors and frequently
leads to problems for lawful workers. Congress has repeatedly refused to make
the system permanent or mandatory.
An earlier lawsuit, Chicanos Por La Causa and Somos America v. Napolitano,
was filed on November 14, 2007. That case was dismissed without a ruling on the
law on December 7, 2007. The coalition filed the present case on December 12,
2007.
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