Employer sanctions law challenged by sponsors

Some state lawmakers who backed Arizona’s new employer sanctions law last year are now pushing to dilute some of its provisions.

Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, prime sponsor of the effort, wants the statute altered so that a company cannot lose its license to do business for having an undocumented worker on the payroll if that person was already on the payroll before the law took effect Jan. 1. He said it’s not fair to punish employers that had no way to verify the legal status of workers since companies had the opportunity to check the legal status of new workers through the federal government’s E-Verify database program.

But that’s not all.

He wants to require prosecutors to prove “regular, repeated and intentional actions” of illegal hiring before a license could be suspended or revoked. Companies would not be penalized for “isolated, sporadic or accidental acts.”

Konopnicki’s bills would also limit the types of licenses a judge could take away, a move Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who crafted the original measure, said could exempt more than half of Arizona businesses from any type of punishment.

Even in the remaining cases, a company would be subject to license suspension or revocation only if guilt were proved “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the same standard that applies for criminal convictions.

“You’re talking about not just taking away a person’s ability to make a living,” Konopnicki explained. “You’re talking about shutting down an investment, you’re talking about jeopardizing bank loans and you’re talking about having employees without jobs.”

Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale, who also voted for last year’s bill, said she saw a legislative solution as preferable to an initiative, which if approved by voters could not be altered by lawmakers.

Allen, one of the co-sponsors of Konopnicki’s package of bills, said she has since found provisions in the original law she does not like, such as allowing prosecutors to investigate anonymous complaints — an option another of Konopnicki’s bills would also change.

Konopnicki said the historic legislation, the first state law in the country to punish companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers, is flawed.

“It was drafted too quickly, and there wasn’t enough attention to detail,” Konopnicki said.

But Pearce said Konopnicki, who owns several McDonald’s franchises, has an ulterior motive.

“It’s everything he can do to create an amnesty program for illegal employers,” he said.

Konopnicki said the 2007 legislation is a minefield that will entrap companies that make inadvertent errors. He said that’s why one of his bills would forbid license revocation unless prosecutors could show a “pattern or practice” of hiring people not authorized to work in this country.

“You pick somebody up on the corner, you pay them cash, you don’t pay taxes, that’s really where the target ought to be,” Konopnicki said.

But Pearce said there is no reason to exempt any employer from the provisions of the law. He also said there are sufficient safeguards to ensure no one is unfairly prosecuted.

He noted the law gives a “rebuttable presumption” of innocence to any company that has checked a new employee’s legal status through the E-Verify program. And a judge cannot suspend or revoke a license unless prosecutors prove the business knowingly or intentionally hired an undocumented worker.

Another change Konopnicki wants is a clear exemption from punishment for hiring independent contractors who are here illegally.

But Pearce said that creates another loophole: allowing businesses to simply fire their employees and, instead, contract with them.

Other lawmakers who voted for last year’s legislation and are now working with Konopnicki include Sens. Jake Flake, R-Snowflake, and Amanda Aguirre, D-Yuma, and Rep. Jack Brown, D-St. Johns.