Agema to introduce illegal immigration bills

LANSING — A trio of bills designed to tackle undocumented workers are on the way, says Greenville Republican state Rep. Dave Agema.

Agema, a former airline pilot, says he has introduced two laws to force some businesses in the state to use the federal e-verify computer system for all employees. A third piece of legislation will be introduced “shortly.” That third piece of legislation, Agema tells Michigan Messenger, will be a “hybrid” legislation between a controversial law in Arizona which is currently being challenged by federal authorities and a law introduced in Pennsylvania.

“It’s going to be very basic,” Agema says. “It says if a cop catches you doing a felony and you have no ID and he suspects you are an illegal, he can check. He might suspect because of no ID, or because the person can’t speak English.”

“That’s already legal,” says Ryan Bates, director of Alliance for Immigrants Rights and Reform Michigan affiliate. “It’s already in our laws.”

In Arizona, opponents of the tough new immigration law argue it is a form of enforced racial profiling. The federal government seems to agree with opponents and has instituted action to block the law. In Pennsylvania, legislation introduced last year created three new crimes on the state level. The crimes include a charge for not having documents, transporting undocumented workers and for an undocumented worker to apply for a job.

Bates says the issue with the Arizona style laws is they require law enforcement agents to enforce immigration laws, or face lawsuits from citizens. That, he says, means “legally mandated racial profiling.”

“This is another example of how politicians are completely out of step with the fiscal realities of our state and how those realities translate to our everyday existence. For instance, Ingham county just laid off about 30 deputy sheriffs and has closed down a significant portion of the County Jail,” says Ernesto Mireles, executive director of the Xicano Development Center in Lansing. “But individuals like Agema now want police to add additional responsibilities to their work in the form of inquiring as to whether or not a law has been broken. If it is an issue of identification the State of Michigan should look very hard at its policy of denying undocumented immigrants driver licenses.”

Bates also says laws requiring state law enforcement agents to enforce immigration laws make communities less safe.

“It changes where priorities are for local law enforcement and allocation of resources,” Bates says. “If your house is being robbed, should the cops be on the other side of town checking Grandma Lopez’s papers, or stopping the robbery?”

Agema says undocumented workers are something that “bothers me a lot.”

“When I was a pilot, prior to 9-11, I would fly out of San Diego and when INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) were checking my flights, I would have 30 to 40 empty seats from illegals,” he said.

“If Rep. Agema was truly interested in helping law enforcement to do their job then he, along with others, will provide for the legal documentation of every resident of the state,” says Mireles. “It makes no sense to criminalize a group of residents for no other reason than we as a nation have no idea how to deal with the financial ruin we have allowed two party politicians to make of this country.”

The first piece of legislation will require all contractors of the state of Michigan to e-verify their employees. E-verify is a program of the federal government that allows employers to enter the name and social security number of a potential employee. The program searches federal databases to make sure the person is a citizen or eligible resident alien.

A second piece of legislation would require temporary agencies to e-verify people it employs before sending those people to the temporary agency’s business clients.

Mireles says in theory there are no issues with the e-verify laws.

“The law is clear. Anyone working in the territory of the United States must have certain documentation to be legally employed. So as far as the law stands – no we don’t have an issue with e-verify. We do though have and issue with unjust laws that overly benefit the rich at the expense of the working poor, who make up the overwhelming majority of the residents of the state of Michigan,” Mireles said. “These types of laws are further blockages to business and economic recovery.”

The issue, Mireles says, is creating more hoops and hurdles for Michigan employers.

“Our concern is that these types of laws directly impact the decisions of many business owners to spend money in this state.” he says. “Why make it harder for business? Most politicians talk a good game about deregulation but the truth is they can’t wait to make new laws and they usually do that at someone else’s expense. In this case it is at the expense of business owners in the State of Michigan.”

Agema challenges the idea that the e-verify programs would increase costs to businesses in the state.

“It’s almost nothing,” Agema says. “Once they are set up in the system — which takes 30-35 minutes — it takes between three and five seconds in most cases, and as long as 24 hours to before it comes back confirmed or not confirmed.”

He says there are two reasons the system returns not confirmed results. First, the information has connected such that the socials security number and the name do not match. That could be because the person is undocumented, but it could also be that the person recently changed their name because of a marriage and forgot to change that information with the Social Security Administration.

Bates says if Agema really wants to deal with illegal immigration, he will push for comprehensive immigration reform.

“We need lawmakers who are interested in solving the problem, not politicians looking to score cheap political points by scapegoating immigrants,” Bates says.