Dear Editor: please accept this guest editorial from House Majority Policy Committee Chairman Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne. For confirmation, please call or email Bob at 717-787-2229 or bcaton@pahouse.net

Guest Editorial by Rep. Todd Eachus - Immigration Reform

As Americans we should be able to trust the federal government, from President George W. Bush on down, to defend our borders. Unfortunately, that trust has been violated by the government’s inaction on illegal immigration.

As Americans we should be able to trust that our businesses will adhere to our laws and not put profit above the safety and identity of our nation. Unfortunately, some businesses have violated that trust by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants at the expense of legal workers.

While I firmly believe that illegal immigrants are breaking the law and should be punished to the full extent of the existing laws when caught, we need to strike at the root cause of the illegal immigration problem: We need to come down hard on businesses damaging our nation to improve their bottom lines by knowingly hiring low-wage unskilled illegal immigrants and we need to let the federal government know in no uncertain terms that we are tired of their crime of inaction when it comes to defending our borders.

There are new proposals that take strong, proactive approaches to both aspects of the illegal immigration problem.

The legislation being proposed would:

• Empower state law enforcement agents and/or Department of Labor and Industry inspectors by providing training and giving those state officers the authority to enter a publicly funded project when they have reason to believe there are illegal workers being used. These officers would have the power to examine employer records to verify workers’ identity and verify workers’ status as an employee and not an independent contractor. If those workers are proven to be illegal immigrants and the employer knowingly hired them as illegal immigrants the businesses would lose their professional or business license and be subject to a fine.

• Penalize employers on any taxpayer-funded project who knowingly use illegal immigrants and require those employers to repay any public monies they may have received from state and/or local governments in addition to a fine.

• Study employers underreporting the size of their workforce and misclassifying employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying payroll taxes and workers’ compensation and unemployment compensation contributions. The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee would be charged with the study that would include determining how many underreported employees are illegal immigrants.

• License contractors with a law similar to West Virginia’s that would ensure capable and skilled craftsmanship is used in construction projects both public and private, to ensure fair bidding practices, and protect the public from unfair, unsafe and unscrupulous construction practices including knowingly employing illegal immigrants. The contractor licensing measure would establish a board that has power to permanently revoke a license, suspend a license for a specified period or censure or reprimand a licensee when illegal immigrants are knowingly employed.

• Revoke the professional or business license of any contractor found to have employed illegal aliens and levy a financial penalty.

• Strongly admonish the federal government with a House Resolution for not enforcing the immigration laws of this country and urging them to do so. In the absence of the federal government doing its job, it should empower states to protect themselves through their own police powers and further reimburse states for costs incurred in protecting their citizens from problems associated with the use of illegal immigrants.

It’s unfortunate that the federal government is ignoring the Constitutional responsibility to protect our borders and the burden has fallen on the states. If Washington doesn’t want to do its job, then we’ll do it, but local taxpayers should NOT have to foot the bill.

Yes, the United States is a nation of immigrants, but it is also a nation of laws – laws that illegal immigrants and disreputable businesses are ignoring. These proposals would help give us the tools we need to solve the problem from the top down.