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Republican Governor Robert Bentley on Thursday signed into law a crackdown on illegal immigration in Alabama that both supporters and critics consider the toughest in the nation. Under the new measure, police must detain someone they suspect of being in the country illegally if the person cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason. It also will be a crime to knowingly transport or harbor someone who is in the country illegally. The law imposes penalties on businesses that knowingly employ someone without legal resident status. A company's business license could be suspended or revoked. The law requires Alabama...

A new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports found that 82% of likely voters think businesses should be required to use E-Verify. The poll also found that 61% of likely voters would favor a state law that shuts down businesses that repeatedly hire illegal workers. The poll was conducted after the Supreme Court's ruling last week that upholds an Arizona law that suspends a company's business license if found repeatedly hiring illegal workers. Only 12% of likely voters would oppose a nationwide mandatory E-Verify law.

Alabama Passes Mandatory E-Verify & Immigration Enforcement Bill Friday, June 3, 2011, 1:25 PM EDT An Alabama House and Senate conference committee agreed on a new bill, which both chambers have already passed, that requires the use of E-Verify by all businesses in the state and includes several immigration enforcement provisions. Should Gov. Robert Bentley sign the bill into law, it would become one of the largest state crackdowns on illegal immigration in the country. The bill requires all businesses, public and private, to begin using E-Verify effective April 1, 2012. Businesses that do not comply face suspension of its...

After it passed a robust immigration-enforcement measure last year, Arizona was practically expelled from the union. The great and good denounced the state for its Gestapo tactics. The Obama administration sued it. The professionally outraged announced boycotts. Arizona stood condemned before the world, a byword for hatred and defiance of federal law. And yet the Supreme Court last week implicitly ratified Arizona’s leadership role on immigration enforcement. It’s everyone else who is out of line, not Arizona. The Supreme Court upheld the state’s requirement that businesses use the federal E-Verify system — a database accessible through the Internet — to...

Immigration: In a victory for states' rights, the Supreme Court has upheld the state law requiring businesses to verify immigration status of employees and revoking their business licenses if they knowingly hire illegal aliens. Yes, we can control our borders, and states do have the right to protect their citizens and their own borders. That was the meaning of a 5-3 decision last Thursday by the U.S. Supreme Court validating Arizona's 2007 law requiring businesses to use E-Verify, a voluntary federal program to determine if workers are eligible to work here. The Obama administration has argued that immigration and border...

COLUMBIA — Gov. Nikki Haley said today that two dozen of South Carolina's illegal immigration enforcement agents were blocked by the Obama administration from enforcing the state's law. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, part of President Barack Obama's Cabinet, told the state it could not use E-Verify documentation to enforce South Carolina's immigration law. But Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar law in Arizona upheld a state's right to rely the online system that uses Social Security numbers to screens new workers to see if they are legally in the country. Haley said Obama is getting in...

Conversely, you could say that the Chamber of Commerce and ACLU have lost, and lost big-time. Overall, it was a very good day for the Supreme Court of the United States, or as law nerds like to call it, SCOTUS. However, it was an even better day for Arizonans, and for those of us who sympathize with their struggle to combat illegal immigration almost single-handedly. Not only did the Supreme Court majority reject the specious arguments advanced by those who want to retain a class of indentured servants from foreign countries in perpetuity, it affirmed the right of state legislatures...

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Arizona’s 2007 law requiring all employers in the state to use the federal E-Verify system for screening out illegal aliens and revoking the business licenses of firms that knowingly hire them. The court split 5–3 along party lines: Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor (Kagan recused herself) ignored the plain meaning of the federal law empowering states to use their licensing power to address the employment of illegal workers. Chief Justice Roberts, on the other hand, found “no basis in law, fact, or logic” for the argument that Arizona should be stopped from doing so in...

(CNSNews.com) – In an early test of state immigration reform laws, the Supreme Court ruled on the side of enforcement regarding an Arizona immigration law that allows penalties up to revocation of business licenses for employers that knowingly hire illegal aliens. The Arizona law in question in this case required employers to use E-Verify, an electronic federal system that is currently voluntary that allows employers to determine the legal status of job applicants and employees. The court ruled 5-3, with Justice Elena Kagan not participating, to reject the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s argument that the Arizona law pre-empted federal control...

ATLANTA - Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a bill that cracks down on illegal immigration by increasing some enforcement powers and requiring many employers to check the immigration status of new hires. Deal on Friday signed the bill that has some similarities to a controversial bill enacted last year in Arizona. Most parts of the Georgia law are set to enter into effect July 1. But opponents have said they plan to file lawsuits seeking to block it.

Indianapolis— Five students arrested at an immigration protest at the Indiana Statehouse Monday will not face deportation. Federal authorities lifted detention orders against the illegal immigrants Tuesday evening. The detention was lifted shortly after the five declared a hunger strike Tuesday. The students say the hunger strike will last until Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) vetoes the immigration bill he has previously promised to sign. The students were part of a protest that went all the way to the front door of the governor's office. Senate Bill 590 would make illegal immigrants pay much higher tuitions. The cost would be...

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton won't revive a directive from his Republican predecessor requiring the state to participate in enforcing federal immigration law, a spokeswoman told The Associated Press Thursday. Spokeswoman Katie Tinucci said the Democratic governor decided against reviving the 2008 executive order from former Gov. Tim Pawlenty because it wasn't necessary. The directive, which expired last week, had required state cooperation with federal authorities in areas such as customs enforcement and fraudulent documents. Tinucci said the directive wasn't needed to enable state law enforcement agents to cooperate with federal authorities, so Dayton made a practical decision not to keep...

Dee Dee Garcia, president of Somos Republicans, told The Florida Independent her group does not support immigration-enforcement-only measures in Florida. The Florida Senate Judiciary committee will discuss the GOP’s immigration bill S.B. 2040 today. A Somos press release issued Friday states: SOMOS REPUBLICANS, the largest conservative Hispanic grassroots organization is a leader in advocating pro growth, pro business and pro immigrant ideas. We are not in support of SB 2040, an E-Verificiation Bill which is supported by Florida State Senator Anitere Flores. # We believe that small businesses are the economic engine of the United States, therefore, state lawmakers should...

St. Paul, Minn. — Gov. Mark Dayton has dropped a controversial check of work eligibility for state employees and large vendors doing business with the state. In 2008, Gov. Tim Pawlenty ordered the names of all new hires be run through a Department of Homeland Security database. The program known as E-Verify checks work eligibility in the United States. Vendors doing more than $50,000 worth of business with the state were also affected. A Dayton administration memo said while the state will continue to comply with federal immigration laws in its hiring, "the E-Verify process has been inefficient and yielded...

The federal government is requiring as many as 1,000 companies to turn over their employment records for inspection, part of an expanding crackdown on businesses suspected of hiring illegal immigrants, according to people close to the Department of Homeland Security. The audits, which the government is expected to make public in the next few days, represent the biggest such operation since 2009. At that time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a DHS unit, conducted an auditing sweep of businesses working in public safety and national security.

Out-of-work plumber Pablo Haro scoured the postings at a Murrieta jobs center for openings at local utilities, but he didn't expect any plumbing companies to be hiring. The recession-ravaged Inland Empire is flooded with laid-off plumbers trying to scratch by, he said. That's why Haro is all for the rash of tough new laws cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants in this conservative, suburban valley. "They're working for almost nothing; it's hard to compete with that," said Haro, who was born in Mexicali but became a U.S. citizen a decade ago. "Construction has crashed, so everyone is scrambling...

Not being able to spare a slowdown if federal agents came combing for illegal workers, Ryt-way Industries signed onto a partnership with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to ensure that the company's 1,000 workers — 40 percent of whom don't speak English — are legal. The program includes using E-verify, a centralized federal database to check whether documents produced by job candidates are legitimate. At first many documents came up as suspect. It happened, said Bolton, who is vice president of human resources, "quite often." It has improved and, as word spread among immigrant communities about the company's careful...

Within an hour of becoming Florida's 45th governor, Rick Scott signed an order meant to ensure that anyone working for the state was in the country legally. But the screening system that Scott is relying on lets unauthorized workers slip through its filter more than half the time because it cannot spot identity theft, according to a federal report. The E-Verify system, a federal database available to employers, failed to identify those workers as unauthorized 54 percent of the time, according to an audit released last year. Investigators discovered that was the percentage of illegal workers incorrectly deemed eligible for...

Sheyenne Leona Contreras, age 30, who is the president of H&S Drywall Inc, was arrested in Lake County Florida on an Okaloosa County warrant. The warrant alleges that Contreras violated FS 817.568(2)(c) and 817.568(9) while under a subcontract to the US Army Corps of Engineers on the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex at Eglin AFB. During the ongoing investigation, it was shown that H&S Drywall obtained over $900,000 in payments by submitting payroll invoices and records using stolen and counterfeit Social Security Numbers. So far, over 30 such Social Security Numbers appearing on H&S Drywall payroll records have...

On Wednesday, newly installed Rhode Island governor, Lincoln Chafee rescinded an executive order put in place by his predecessor, Gov. Donald Carcieri which ordered state agencies and their vendors to use the E-verify system to screen-out illegal aliens for employment. Gov. Chafee also ordered the Rhode Island State Police to stop participating in the federal 287(g) program which allowed them direct access to an immigration database when they suspect an arrestee to be in the country illegally. The program has proven very successful in identifying and reporting illegal aliens to federal authorities. Immediately after signing the order, Chafee said: “My...