The good and bad of immigrant bills

State a bit player in immigration reform

Published February 21, 2006 at midnight

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It takes about 10 seconds of serious reflection to conclude that the nation's immigration system isn't working.

The southern border is a sieve, and Washington has been AWOL on a host of fiscal and law enforcement measures that damage local communities - from a refusal to reimburse states for the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants who commit crimes to a failure to compensate hospitals for illegals' medical care.

But it remains the case that any serious immigration fix will require federal action. Perhaps that is why there is little cause to cheer today's scheduled marathon hearing in Colorado's House State Affairs Committee, which will consider at least 10 immigration bills.

Of the 10 items that were on the calendar early Monday, many would arguably cause more headaches than they would cure.

The worst of the lot is House Bill 1082, by Minority Leader Joe Stengel. The bill would let companies that hire illegal immigrants be sued for civil damages if they break the law when not at work. Talk about a bonanza for the plaintiffs' bar.

The principle could easily be expanded to cover the off-the-job behavior of employees in every company statewide, too. It's foolhardy for ostensibly pro-business Republicans to place companies in jeopardy for the private behavior of workers.

But wait. There's more. HB 1134, by Rep. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, would require every law enforcement agency to enter a "memorandum of understanding" with federal immigration officials, effectively deputizing local police as border agents. The idea is to require Colorado cops involved in "routine law enforcement" to detain illegal immigrants.

So every sobriety checkpoint would become an immigration stop - or any time police investigated a domestic disturbance, they could also say, "Papers, please."

Listen. Police have plenty of crimes to fight as it is. And they'll have a much harder time doing basic investigatory work once illegal immigrants realize they risk arrest and deportation if they ever cooperate with police.

As now written, though, we can get behind two bills on the calendar: House Bills 1286 and 1290. They would require all food-service establishments and every Colorado employer, respectively, to enlist in a federal program that verifies the employment status of workers.

The voluntary pilot program lets businesses check the Social Security number of each employee against a federal database and is a reasonable way to protect companies from being scammed by illegal immigrants.

Its widespread application could in fact replace some of the paperwork burdens employers now face in complying with immigration and labor laws.

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