Bill would require employers E-Verify all new employees

A new bill introduced Friday morning in the Idaho Legislature would prohibit all Idaho employers from hiring non-U.S. citizens who do not have the legal authorization to work in the United States.

The bill, House Bill 252, also requires every Idaho business and employer to enroll in and use the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program to verify new employees’ authorization to work beginning Jan. 1.

“It is unlawful for any employer to knowingly employ, hire, recruit, or refer, either for the employer itself or on behalf of another, for private or public employment within the state an unauthorized worker who is not duly authorized to be employed by law,” the bill states.

Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, sponsored the new bill.   

“(This new bill) adds to Idaho employment law to prohibit employment of illegal aliens and require employers to use E-Verify for each new hire to verify legal employment status as a condition of their employment,” Redman said while presenting the bill Friday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.

Redman said state agencies and public contractors that receive state funds are already required to use E-Verify. The new bill extends that requirement to all Idaho businesses and employers. 

Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen, an Idaho Falls Republican and potato farmer, opposed the bill and made an unsuccessful attempt to prevent its introduction Friday.

Mickelsen said she believes the fiscal note attached to the bill, which states “This legislation causes no additional expenditure of funds at the state or local level of government …” is inaccurate. Mickelsen also said she opposes other provisions of the bill but did not go into specific details. 

One aspect of the bill would allow Idaho residents to petition the Idaho attorney general to bring enforcement actions against specific employers or businesses. 

“I see some problems within this bill …” Mickelsen said.  

The bill would have far-reaching effects if it is signed into law. 

The Idaho dairy industry, which reports more than $10 billion in total sales and says it ranks third in milk production in the United States, says that 90% of on-dairy jobs are held by Spanish-speaking workers who were not born in the United States, many of whom do not have legal authorization to work in the United States. 

“The success and growth of Idaho’s dairy industry is not achievable without the contributions of the talented, predominantly Hispanic workforce who has toiled beside Idaho’s dairy farm families for generations,” the Idaho Dairymen’s Association wrote on its website. 

The Idaho Dairymen’s Association has called for extending legal protections to existing agriculture workers and their immediate families, as well as access to a year-round worker visa program for agriculture workers.

“The labor shortage in the dairy industry is worsened by the inability to access a visa program for year-round jobs or the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program,” the Idaho Dairymen’s Association wrote on its website. 

Friday’s hearing was an introductory hearing, which does not include public testimony. Introducing the bill clears the way for it to return to the House State Affairs Committee for a full public hearing, which could occur as early as next week.