We feel it might be helpful to provide a bit more color on a specific bill that has received a bit of attention this week, with one news outlet citing it as “discriminatory.”
House Bill 1531 regarding immigration, authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott (R-Union City), was voted out of committee last week and passed the full House with a 64-26 vote after a brief discussion. The Chamber testified as “neutral” to the bill in committee, but our position could change to “support” with further improvements – assuming the Senate continues moving it in the second half.
Essentially, there are three parts to the bill: 1) clarifying that federal, state or local law enforcement can enforce federal immigration laws, 2) providing direction to government bodies with custody of individuals subject to an immigration detainer request and 3) empowering the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to investigate and prosecute employers who recruit, hire or employ “unauthorized aliens,” defined as an individual who is neither a permanent resident nor legally authorized to be employed due to his or her immigration status.
That third part is what’s garnering much attention. One might wonder why – or how – the Chamber could potentially support legislation that enacts “new” regulatory enforcement measures on employers?
The simple answer is that the Chamber advocates strongly for fair competition in the marketplace. There are, without question, employers who circumvent or ignore laws against employing unauthorized aliens. These bad actors simultaneously pay less for labor, which gives them an unfair advantage against those who comply with the law.
The Chamber worked closely with Representative Prescott and the OAG dating back to last fall to ensure the bill contains two critical protections for employers: a safe harbor and a right-to-cure.
The safe harbor provision protects an employer from enforcement if it uses either E-verify or guidance from the OAG when hiring. In other words, if the OAG initiates an investigation and the employer can prove that it used either method during its hiring process, then it is exempt from prosecution.
The right-to-cure provision gives an employer who employed an unauthorized alien, intentionally or otherwise, 15 days after receiving an investigation notice from the OAG to cure the problem. That means the employer must submit to the Attorney General a signed affidavit attesting that the employer has terminated the employment of any and all unauthorized aliens, engaged in reasonable diligence to confirm the work eligibility of all of its employees and will not knowingly employ any unauthorized aliens in the future.
Additional provisions championed by the Chamber include the following: limiting enforcement to employers of 10 or more employees, protecting employers who do not knowingly or intentionally engage in the unlawful behavior and removing from the introduced version of the bill a three-year look back, which would have allowed the OAG to prosecute employers for its practices dating back to 2022.
In conclusion, the bill is close to one the Chamber can publicly support because any employer who is successfully prosecuted under this law is not playing fair. Indiana should be as welcoming as possible to legal immigrants and our employers should embrace their talents with open arms. However, Indiana cannot be a state that turns a blind eye to unfair competition and labor trafficking through illegal employment practices.
