Gov. Ron DeSantis signed three bills into law on Friday to bolster Florida’s efforts to prevent illegal immigration.
“We’re here today, one, to build off a record of success with respect to combating illegal immigration…if you go back six or seven years in the state of Florida, we were not leading against illegal immigration at all, in fact, we were one of the weaker states,” DeSantis said.
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An Ohio lawmaker calls an employer hiring someone living in or having entered the country illegally human trafficking and wants it to stop.
Rep. Scott Wiggam, R-Wayne County, recently testified on behalf of House Bill 327, which would require certain employees to verify the legal status of employees by using the federal I-9 form and getting confirmation of employment eligibility.
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A Pennsylvania state lawmaker is urging colleagues to back emerging legislation ensuring illegal aliens who try to get firearms are reported to federal and state authorities.Â
State Representative Ryan Mackenzie’s (R-Macungie) measure would direct the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) to inform the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) and the Pennsylvania Attorney General of all such purchase attempts.Â
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A Pennsylvania lawmaker is asking colleagues to support an expansion of the state’s mandate that contractors use the E-Verify system to ensure they only hire legal U.S. residents.Â
State Representative Ryan Mackenzie (R-Macungie) this week began circulating a memorandum seeking co-sponsors for his upcoming legislation that would require all public contractors and subcontractors to use the federal government’s E-Verify website. Established in the late nineties and now run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the site lets employers avail themselves of it free of charge. The system cross-references information from workers’ Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 with preexisting government data to determine whether a hire is living in America legally.Â
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Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers indicated this week they’re authoring legislation to enhance the effectiveness of a web-based system used to confirm workers’ legal U.S. residency.
In 1996, the federal government established the E-Verify system as a voluntary five-state pilot program to ease employers’ ability to check the immigration statuses of their new hires. It was expanded for use in all 50 states in 2003 and is administered by the Department of Homeland Security.
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Florida state Representative Anthony Sabatini announced this week that he has filed a bill that will mandate the use of E-Verify by all public and private employers.
Sabatini tweeted, “JUST FILED my first Bill for the 2022 FL Legislative Session. HB 6001 will mandate the use of E-Verify in FL, requiring ALL workers prove that they are legal BEFORE they can work in our State. With 70% of all new illegals coming straight to Florida, we MUST pass this Bill!”
This is his fourth time that Sabatini has filed a bill related to E-Verify since he was elected to the Florida House in 2018.
E-Verify is a web-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. E-Verify employers verify the identity and employment eligibility of newly hired employees by electronically matching information provided by employees on the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, against records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
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Less than two weeks after being removed from the House Civil Justice, Criminal Justice, and Education Instruction Committees, Rep. Bruce Griffey’s (R-Paris) membership was reinstated by Speaker Cameron Sexton.
Griffey’s removal came unceremoniously at the end of the March 25 House floor session, three days following a testy exchange on the House floor primarily with House Parliamentarian Daniel Hicks, and to a lesser degree Sexton himself, related to Griffey’s use of Rule 53 of the House Permanent Rules of Order for the 112th General Assembly for his proposed E-Verify legislation.
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During the House floor session Monday evening, Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) spared his members from a Rule 53 vote regarding the proposed E-Verify legislation.
Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) invoked the Rule 53 provision from the House Permanent Rules of Order for the 112th General Assembly, which is the process of recalling a bill from committee. If a Rule 53 effort is successful, the subject bill would be scheduled directly to the House floor for a vote, bypassing the committee process that killed the bill.
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In an effort to revive the legislation requiring the use of E-Verify for Tennessee employers with six or more employees, Rep. Bruce Griffey filed the necessary paperwork Thursday to recall the bill in accordance with a House rule.
Rule 53 of the House of Representatives Permanent Rules of Order for the 112th General Assembly allows for a process to recall a bill from committee. If the effort is successful, the bill will be scheduled directly to the House floor for a vote, bypassing the committee process that killed the bill.
A bill that was killed last week in the House Banking and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee would have reverted to the threshold required for E-Verify in legislation signed into law by Governor Bill Haslam in 2011 and remained in effect until 2016.
Currently, employers are required under state law to use the E-Verify program to confirm work authorization status of their employees, but only if they have 50 or more employees.
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Tennessee small businesses that experienced the largest increases in the number of employees over the past five years are exempt from the requirement to ensure that their employees are not illegal aliens through the use of the federal government’s e-verification system.
At the federal level, E-Verify is a voluntary program.
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A bill that would create equity amongst Tennessee employers as to the required use of the E-verify system was killed by five Republicans in the House Banking and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee, even as thousands of illegal immigrants surge the southern border.
HB 0801, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris), would require employers in the state with six or more employees to utilize the federal government’s E-verify system in hiring future employees. Griffey’s bill lowered the threshold from the current law, which required e-verification for employers with 50 or more employees.
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In order to curtail illegal alien employment, employers with six or more employees may be required to verify their workers’ eligibility. Current law only requires that level of verification for employers with over 50 employees. The proposed bill would also remove the immunity for employers who rely on forms of verification other than E-Verify, the federal electronic employment verification service. The legislation includes a sole exemption for farmers.Â
State Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) introduced the legislation earlier this month. Its companion bill in the Senate, introduced by State Senator John Stevens (R-Huntington), was referred to the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee last week. The legislation mirrors Griffey’s similar bill from last year, which was passed by the House but died in the Senate.Â
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed conservative Joe Carr to discuss why he did not endorse Bill Hagerty for the Tennessee U.S. Senate seat.
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In an interview on The Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast Wednesday on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Steve Gill spoke to State Representative of House District Twenty Six Robin Smith about Georgia’s desire to move the border in order to get some of Tennessee’s water. Towards the end of the show, the team discussed with Smith’s recent victory in passing the e-verify bill and how this will lead the way to making sure only legal immigrants are able to work in the state. Gill: Robin Smith is on our news-makers line and a lot of stuff going on. Two big bills we want to get her to update us on. State Representative from the Chattanooga area. The bottom line is Georgia wants our water. Georgia wants to take a mile of our property. And Robin says not only no but hell no. Maybe not in those exact terms. Good morning Robin. Smith: Good morning Steve. Good morning Nashville. I’m fascinated by the fact that Georgia has pretty much put their foot in the ground that their not going to move their historical monuments…
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The bill to impose a fee on monetary transfers from Tennessee to outside the U.S. and its territories failed in the House Banking and Investment Subcommittee by a vote of 6 to 1. House Bill 0562 sponsored by Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) received national attention when his effort caught the attention of talk show host Laura Ingraham of Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle, who tweeted about Griffey’s bill and then had him appear on a segment of her television program. The fees imposed on the monetary transfers would be reserved to help with President Trump’s efforts in securing the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico as well as providing additional funding to law enforcement for the costs associated with capturing and detaining illegal aliens within Tennessee. As previously reported by The Tennessee Star, the costs of illegal aliens in the state was estimated at $793 million in 2017 by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Representative Griffey’s fund the border wall bill is one in a series of bills dealing with illegal immigration in the state. By roll call vote requested by the bill’s sponsor, Representative Timothy Hill (R-Blountville) voted in favor of the measure, while Representatives Yusuf…
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In the wake of the hard fought win by former House of Representatives Republican Ron DeSantis in the Florida governor’s race, legislators in the state House and Senate are inspired to try again to move two bills that would have a chilling effect on the ability of businesses to hire illegal aliens and for local governments to harbor them from federal law enforcement. An immigration restriction group headquartered in Washington, DC, the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), reported the news about the bills to its members on Friday. Although the legislature does not reconvene until March 2019, committees will discuss the bills during January and February. E-Verify On December 11, Representative Thad Altman (R-Melbourne/Indialantic) introduced HB 89 which would among other provisions: ~ Require all private employers to register with E-Verify and use it for all employees hired after January 1, 2020; ~ Require all state agencies, local governments and public contractors to verify new employees hired after July 1, 2019; ~ Set up an enforcement process where private employers could lose their business licenses for employing illegal aliens; ~ Require the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity to report illegal aliens to ICE. Many, including the leadership of FAIR, believe that mandatory…
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The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has updated information for Tennessee businesses to help owners and managers keep up with what Tennessee state law requires when it comes to the E-Verify system. As of Jan. 1, 2017 – due to an update to the Tennessee Lawful Employment Act (TLEA) passed in 2011 – all Tennessee employers with 50 or more employees must use the E-Verify system to verify that their workers are eligible for U.S. employment. Previously, employers had a choice of compliance options; now employers of this size must use E-Verify. If a staff member was hired on or after Jan. 1, 2017, E-Verify must be used for them. This applies to employees working in or outside the state of Tennessee, and if the employer fails to use E-Verify, they could receive a $500 civil penalty per day of noncompliance (or more for repeat offenses). Employers with between six and 49 employees are required to either use E-Verify for workers hired on or after Jan. 1, 2017, or request and retain I-9 documentation from each employee. I-9 documentation includes: Tennessee driver’s license or photo id license issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety Valid driver’s license or photo id…
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Federal deportation officers staged one of the biggest enforcement actions in years against businesses in Los Angeles this week, arresting 212 people and serving audit notices to 122 businesses who will have to prove they aren’t hiring illegal immigrants. Nearly all of those arrested were convicted criminals, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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