Chamber Appeals Arizona Immigration Decision

WASHINGTON, DC-The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed an opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit urging reversal of a lower court holding that federal immigration law does not preempt a new Arizona law sanctioning employers that hire unauthorized workers. The state law, which went into effect on January 1, 2008, imposes heavy sanctions on businesses that allegedly hire undocumented workers or that fail to utilize a program to verify the status of workers that is voluntary under federal law.

"The Ninth Circuit has the opportunity to put a halt to a troubling trend by state and local authorities to regulate the employment of unauthorized workers in contravention of federal law," said Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the National Chamber Litigation Center which represents the U.S. Chamber in the litigation, Arizona Contractors Ass'n, et al. v. Candelaria. "Arizona's heavy-handed immigration law forces compliance with a voluntary, experimental federal test program that even the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recognized suffers from widespread errors."

The Arizona law upheld by a district court requires businesses to comply with the federal E-Verify pilot program for electronic verification of employment eligibility. Businesses that fail to comply with the program or that "intentionally or knowingly" employ unauthorized workers are subject to heavy sanctions. The Chamber argues that Arizona's decision to mandate compliance with E-Verify runs counter to Congress' intent that the program be voluntary. According to a September 2007 evaluation of the program by DHS, the purpose of the E-Verify program is to test out alternative electronic verification programs before any large scale implementation. The Chamber also urges the Ninth Circuit to strike down the Arizona law because businesses are not given an opportunity for a hearing before being subjected to sanctions. In July 2007, a federal district court struck down a similar Hazleton, Pennsylvania law as unconstitutional. That case is on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

"The Pennsylvania federal court got it right in recognizing that '[i]mmigration is a national issue,'" Conrad said. "The Ninth Circuit now has a similar opportunity to recognize that the Arizona law, if permitted to stand, would disrupt a well-established federal scheme for regulating the presence and employment of immigrants in the United States."

The National Chamber Litigation Center, the public policy law firm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is a membership organization that advocates fair treatment of business in the courts and before regulatory agencies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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