ISSUE: What measures should be taken to deal with the problem of illegal immigration.

DISCUSSION: With the issue of illegal immigration rising to the level of firebrand rhetoric at the national level, elected leaders are expected to provide a thoughtful solution. Two specific ideas which have been brought into the debate are: E-Verify and discretionary checks on immigration status. For the retail industry, both ideas have the potential to do harm if not correctly implemented.

E-Verify is a “free” web-based software program that verifies the employee’s eligibility to work in the United States. Using the employee’s Form I-9, the employer enters the required information into the E-Verify system. The system then checks the name and social security number of the employee to determine employment eligibility. Unfortunately, according to a report commissioned by and posted on the Department of Homeland Security’s own website, E-Verify is only 48% reliable. E-Verify is reliant on the presumption that illegal immigrants do not use stolen social security numbers in order to gain employment. However, identity theft is commonly practiced by the illegal immigrant population and there is no way for the employer to determine whether that has occurred. Additionally, E-Verify cannot legally be used for prescreening. Therefore, an employer may unintentionally hire, pay wages to, and pay taxes on an illegal immigrant. For those reasons, if the use of the E-Verify system is required of employers, there must be an affirmative defense provided to them for using it.

Like E-Verify, the allowance of discretionary checks of immigration status must have parameters. If law enforcement officials are given sweeping authority to run background checks during simple traffic stops, this could have a devastating impact on our tourist industry. Arizona, with the passage of its Senate Bill 1070, lost millions of dollars in canceled convention business. Florida’s economy simply cannot sustain such a loss. A more thoughtful approach would be to encourage law enforcement professionals to confirm a suspect’s immigration status when conducting criminal investigations.

POSITION: The Florida Retail Federation favors reasonable action to ensure all foreign born residents and tourists are legally in the state.