9th District Delegation Measure Would Crack Down on Businesses that Knowingly Hire Illegal Aliens
Senator Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt today stated their support for the State legislative agenda to include stopping the unscrupulous business practice of hiring illegal immigrants. The 9th District Lawmakers’ remarks came in response to an announcement by Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney that he will be introducing legislation to punish New Jersey firms that knowingly hire illegal aliens.
Last year, the 9th District Delegation introduced legislation, reintroduced for the current Session, to bar companies operating in the state who hire illegal aliens from receiving public contracts, grants, loans or tax incentives for a period of ten years. Under their measure (S-89/A-308), a penalty of $10,000 would be established for each illegal alien hired by a company that violates any provision of their bill.
“We are pleased that it appears the unscrupulous business practice of hiring illegal aliens could become a priority of the legislative agenda with Majority Leader Sweeney’s recent announcement,” said Senator Connors. “For some time, our Delegation has pressed for this issue to be addressed with the understanding of the significant costs associated with illegal immigration for taxpayers in terms of government services including health care and education. It’s time for the state to stop turning a blind eye to this unlawful activity and impose penalties for companies that knowingly hire illegal aliens.”
Currently, S-89 awaits consideration in the Senate Labor Committee while the Assembly companion bill, A-308, has been referred to the Assembly State Government Committee.
“Each day this issue remains unaddressed, fraudulent business persons line their own pocket at the expense of honest taxpayers,” said Assemblyman Rumpf. “In the majority of cases, illegal immigrants are hired as cheap labor, limiting opportunities for legal citizens to obtain work at reasonable wages. Law abiding businesses who hire legally are at a competitive disadvantage. Simply ignoring this issue because it is controversial represents a failure of our government to enforce its own laws.”
Assemblyman Van Pelt went on to say, “The flow of illegal immigrants to our state could be significantly reduced if companies were cracked down on for their illegal hiring practices. Instead of deferring to the federal government, our state should be instituting its own policies to deal with this issue. To do nothing is to allow for unfair business practices to go unchecked and for limited public resources to be depleted as our state confronts a fiscal crisis. It’s time to put businesses on notice that this illegal practice will no longer be tolerated and to create strong disincentives for those who want to cheat the system.”
The 9th District Legislators have introduced additional legislation concerning illegal immigration. This includes S-81 which would exclude illegal aliens from workers’ compensation and temporary disability benefits and S-82 to require certification that persons directly or indirectly receiving State monies or privileges are not unauthorized aliens. Both measures have been referred to the Senate Labor Committee.
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July 31, 2008
