02/ 11/ 2008
To address our members' overwhelming concerns with illegal immigration, NFIB recently worked with U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.) to draft and introduce H.R. 4088, the SAVE Act (Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007). In fact, NFIB was the only business group to work on this legislation. The SAVE Act addresses two of the biggest immigration problems NFIB members have said they want action on--securing our borders and creating a workable employee verification system.
"The SAVE Act is commonsense legislation that is bringing people together to address this difficult issue," says Rep. Shuler. "I was proud to work with NFIB while drafting this legislation because of their strong representation of American businesses. I deeply appreciate their continued support for this bill as we work to pass the SAVE Act into law."
The message across America, and from NFIB members, was clear--begin to address the immigration problem by first securing our borders and creating a system to check on illegal immigrants.
"Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and Congress' failure to act may well result in 50 state and local governments enacting their own immigration enforcement measures," says Dan Danner, NFIB's executive vice president. Many states are working to enact their own enforcement measures, and if Congress does not act, the resulting impact will be chaotic as small-business owners would face a complex and confusing set of enforcement policies.
The SAVE Act
The bill, which has 132 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, is intended to address three parts of the immigration reform debate: border security, interior enforcement and worker verification.
In working on this bill with Rep. Shuler, NFIB was pleased that he understood and cared about the concerns of small-business owners. As a result, the worker verification requirements in the bill include many provisions designed to protect and help small-business owners.
"NFIB members believe that in order for an immigration reform effort to be successful, the requirements and enforcement provisions must be workable, efficient and fair for small businesses," Danner says. "As Congress debates this issue, it's important that they take into account how any legislation will affect small-business owners and the economy."
NFIB has made clear that small business supports a federal employment eligibility verification system (EEVS) that recognizes the differences in size and infrastructure between big businesses and small businesses, includes a reasonable limit on small-business penalties and reduces the size of first-time penalties on small businesses. In addition, NFIB supports a prohibition on penalties for good-faith violations, protecting employers if incorrect information on a worker is given by the verification system, and making sure that any new federal immigration laws include a longer phase-in time for small businesses. The SAVE Act addresses these concerns and gives small-business owners with fewer than 30 workers four years before they would have to participate in the verification system.
While this legislation addresses two of the top concerns of our members--border security and worker verification--we're also pushing hard to address other important aspects of the immigration debate. NFIB members have indicated that they support increasing the number of available legal immigrant workers, and NFIB has been fighting to get Congress to increase the number of H2-B work visas granted each year. Also, NFIB's Legal Foundation is working to oppose an administration proposal that would severely limit the amount of time an employee has to correct any mismatched identification number with the Social Security Administration. NFIB has argued that employees should be given a minimum 90-day notification period to ensure that vital small-business workers are given ample opportunity to correct and challenge government errors.
As the only business group actively addressing the concerns that small-business owners have with illegal immigration, NFIB intends to continue its leading role in advocating fair and strong immigration reform. As this bill begins to make its way through Congress, we plan to bring small-business owners to the Capitol so that legislators can hear directly from our members.
While Congress is moving slowly on this issue, state legislatures continue to consider measures of their own. At press time, nearly 1,600 bills related to immigration had been introduced among the 50 state legislatures; state legislators introduced almost three times more bills in 2007 than 2008.
Immigration-related legislation in the states covers almost every conceivable policy arena: employment, health, driver's licenses and other forms of identification, business licenses, law enforcement, public benefits and human trafficking. That trend is not expected to change in 2008.
We continue to be aggressive in the legislatures and in the court system to ensure that businesses are not saddled with overly harsh regulations and requirements. For example, we're one of the leaders of the recently established Virginia Employers for Sensible Immigration Policy.
"This is a major issue in Virginia, and we wanted to come together as a group and have a seat at the table," said Julia Ciarlo Hammond, NFIB state director, in an article published in The Washington Post. "We fully support sanctions against those who knowingly violate the law."
Small-business owners feel strongly about enforcing our borders and creating a workable employee verification system, and NFIB will continue to lead the charge.
