Arizona recently adopted an immigration law that has caused turmoil across the country and is threatening the Arizona economy with a national boycott. No matter how business owners feel about the law or immigration in general, it is vitally important for Arizona businesses to quickly understand how to comply with the new law.
The Arizona law creates several new obligations for employers and penalizes companies who fail to properly verify the legal status of new employees. Here are 3 things Arizona employers must consider in the wake of this new law:
1. If you rely on day laborers you need to re-think your business model. One provision of the new law makes it a crime for an employer to pick up day laborers if it impedes traffic in any way. It is very common for construction and landscaping employers to pick up day laborers in the parking lots of home improvement stores. That is probably a bad move going forward. By the way, home improvement stores should also consider if they might be swept into a criminal action for “aiding and abetting” this new crime on their property.
2. Not using e-verify? You better start, unless you look good in an orange jumpsuit. The new law makes use of e-verify a solid defense to any alleged problems. Since the law also allows for and protects anonymous complaints about the employment of potential undocumented workers, any employer who doesn’t use e-verify is just asking for trouble. And this law applies to anyone doing business in Arizona – even if you have just one employee.
3. Review your record retention and I-9 compliance policies. The new law requires records to be held for a minimum of 3 years, and good faith compliance with the I-9 requirements is also an affirmative defense. Those are two additional “firewalls” to potential complaints.
Finally, get ahead of the backlash, especially if you are in the hospitality industry. This law is being used as an excuse to boycott Arizona by many different organizations. The SEIU and other unions are taking up the law as a reason to organize in Arizona. It is important for Arizona employers to get out the message that the boycott hurts the people the unions supposedly want to protect – the employees in these service-oriented businesses. If Arizona businesses hope to brunt the impact of these boycott measures they need to make sure the politicians, labor leaders and tourist community understand the personal impact such boycotts have on hard-working Arizona employees.
