Florida Legislature Passes Weakened E-Verify Bill
Arian Campo-Flores and Alejandro Lazo, Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2020
Florida lawmakers passed a bill late Thursday that requires some employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of new hires, but doesn’t include the strict enforcement provisions for which conservatives had advocated.
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The bill passed the Florida Senate 23-17, after clearing the state House 73-45 a day earlier. It is now headed to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, an ally of Mr. Trump who is expected to sign it.
The bill would make Florida the 21st state to require use of the federal E-Verify program, an electronic government database that checks whether new hires are eligible to work in the U.S., according to LawLogix, a software company that specializes in immigration compliance.
While employers praised lawmakers for removing the bill’s most stringent enforcement provisions, some still criticized the state for passing any version of an E-Verify bill. They argued immigration legislation should be handled by Congress, not by individual states that thereby create an inconsistent patchwork for companies.
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Mr. Trump campaigned on a promise to require businesses nationwide to use E-Verify, but hasn’t made the pledge a reality as president.
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Though the GOP governor had pushed for a bill that would require all employers to use E-Verify, lawmakers weakened it—in part to appease House members, including Republican Speaker José Oliva, uncomfortable with some enforcement provisions. The version passed by lawmakers would mandate E-Verify only for public employers, such as state agencies and school districts, and companies that contract with them. Private employers would have a choice either to use E-Verify or rely on I-9 employment authorization forms already required for businesses. Advocates of stronger immigration enforcement said the bill didn’t go far enough and that Florida should have tried a more gradual approach.
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The current version stripped out controversial aspects in an earlier iteration. They included a provision allowing the state’s economic development office to conduct random audits of employment files of companies that don’t use E-Verify. Another provision would have allowed parties to file complaints against companies suspected of using illegal immigrants and required the state to investigate the accusations.
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