Several state measures aiming to fight illegal immigration made their way out of a House subcommittee yesterday. Several business lobbies aren’t happy with one, and the measures’ sponsor says the other two need to trim their projected costs.
The three immigration bills are sponsored by Lascassas Republican Joe Carr. One would require employers to use a free federal service to check workers’ legal status in the country.
Several business groups argued against that measure, saying it’s an unfair burden, like Bradley Jackson, with the state Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“The first thing that we hear from the business community is that this is a mandate. This is a mandate. If you’re going to put a mandate on business, let’s make sure it works a hundred percent of the time.”
Jackson and others argued the federal system has loopholes and isn’t always reliable. But Representative Carr says he’s already made lots of concessions to business concerns, and the State and Local Subcommittee ultimately passed that measure regardless.
They passed out two others from Carr as well: one to verify peoples’ legal status before giving them state benefits, and the other to have police check their status in traffic stops.
Carr says he still has to work on pushing down the cost of those two bills if they’re going to pass the house finance committee.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM