E-Verify won’t be on the ballot

Constitution Revision Commission rejects immigration proposal

Florida businesses won’t have to worry about voters requiring them to verify workers’ immigration status.

Florida businesses won’t have to worry about voters requiring them to verify the immigration status of new employees.

The state Constitution Revision Commission on Monday rejected a proposal that would have asked voters in November to require businesses to use a system similar to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Employment Authorization Program, known as E-Verify, to determine immigration-related eligibility of employees.

The proposal, rejected in a 24-12 vote, drew heavy opposition from agriculture, tourism and construction interests.

Commissioner Chris Smith, a former state senator from Fort Lauderdale, pointed to other commission decisions Monday to add eight proposed constitutional amendments to the November ballot and said the employment-verification proposal (Proposal 6010) could be handled instead by the Legislature.

“I don’t really see the teeth enough that this should be another paragraph on the ballot,” Smith said.

However, Commissioner Rich Newsome, who pushed for the verification system, said Monday the measure would solve a huge problem of undocumented workers “in a way that’s not callous.”

“We don’t have to build a wall to help stop the problem of undocumented workers and of the nightmares that creates, not just for the workers, but the legal workers and the businesses that are trying to follow the law,” Newsome said.

Newsome said the proposal would protect undocumented workers who do not have work or legal protections and would help legal workers who face