The Mohave County Attorney's Office is investigating eight possible violations of the Legal Arizona Workers Act.
The Office began accepting citizen complaint forms when the Act, sometimes called the "Employer Sanctions Law," became effective on Jan. 1.
The complaint forms are available at the County Attorney's Office in Kingman, 315 N. Fourth St., and on the County Attorney's Office Web site, www.co.mohave.az.us.
Completion of the forms start the investigation of an employer suspected of knowingly employing an unauthorized alien. An unauthorized alien is any person who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and who is not authorized to work in the United States under federal law.
Of the eight businesses being investigated, one is in Kingman, one is in Mohave Valley and six are in Lake Havasu City, Chief Deputy County Attorney Jace Zack said.
The first step in the investigation is determining if the employee is authorized to work in the United States.
The federal government's determination is the only evidence of work status that can be used by the County Attorney's Office.
The Mohave County Attorney's Office goes through Immigration and Custom Enforcement to determine the employee's status.
This is the stage the cases in Mohave County are currently at, Zack said. ICE doesn't have a system in place yet that his is aware of, Zack added.
ICE created a working group to develop a system to process requests from investigating agencies to determine an employee's legal status, ICE spokesperson Vincent Picard said.
The process is in place, he added.
"It's still infancy stage," Picard said in response to how long the system has been in place.
Once the Mohave County Attorney's Office determines a worker is not authorized to work in the United States, the prosecutors must determine the business intentionally or knowingly employed the unauthorized worker, Zack said.
"Proving that part takes some time and is kind of tricky," Zack said.
The County Attorney's Office is required by law to file a civil complaint against an employer when there is sufficient evidence to prove the employer intentionally or knowingly employed an unauthorized worker.
If proven, the court may suspend all the employer's business licenses. Professional licenses, such as for physicians, cannot be suspended.
When the courts enter orders against employers who violated the law, the court orders will be available on the Arizona Attorney General Office's Web site, www.azag.gov, as required by the law.
The law doesn't target good-faith errors by an employer, a release from the County Attorney's Office stated. In that situation, the employer will have to discharge the employee.
The Legal Arizona Workers Act also requires employers to use the E-Verify system to verify the employment authorization of all new employees hired on or after Jan. 1. More information about the program is available by calling (888) 464-4218 or go to www.vis-dhs.com.
The law provides that if an employer can prove that the status of an employee was verified using the E-Verify program, there will be a "rebuttable presumption" that the employer did not intentionally or knowingly employ an unauthorized alien, an AG release stated.
Reader Comments
Posted: Saturday, March 22, 2008
Article comment by:
Bobby
B.S. No Real Americans are complaining. Knock off the cr-p about proving this that or the other where hispanics are concerned. The fact is, most Mexicans in the U.S. are illegally here and politicians, the government and police know it.
