Lawmaker wants to crack down on illegal hiring by state contractors
State lawmakers eager to punish businesses that hire unauthorized workers will get another chance next session after a Georgetown Republican filed legislation expanding E-Verify requirements in Texas.
The federal E-Verify system, operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, screens for undocumented workers by comparing the information that job applicants submit to an employer with records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
On Monday, state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, filed Senate Bill 254, which would require contractors and subcontractors doing business with state agencies to enroll in the system.
There is already an E-Verify law on the books: Schwertner’s SB 374, which passed in 2015 and requires state agencies to use the screening tool. But the senator’s new proposal goes a step further by designating a penalty for contractors who don’t use the system and assigning a state agency to enforce some of the bill’s provisions. Under the bill, the state comptroller could make a contractor ineligible to do business with the state for up to five years if the business fails to sign up for E-Verify or discontinues its use while the contract is still valid.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/11/28/new-e-verify-proposal-would-crack-down-illegal-hir/
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