New law requires construction employers to use federal E-Verify System

Legislation authored by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (RLehigh/Berks), known as the Construction Industry Employee Verification Act, has become law. It will require employers in the construction industry to use the federal E-Verify system to ensure that their employees don’t include individuals not authorized to work in the United States.

“Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous employers who hire individuals not authorized to work in the United States for their construction teams,” said Mackenzie. “These employers and their unfair business practices hurt workers by driving down wages, create an unlevel playing field for other employers to compete against, and deprive government of revenue that would be used to fund programs like unemployment compensation.”

The new law is aimed at going after dishonest employers. Failure to use EVerify when hiring new employees will result in action against a company’s licenses required to do business (i.e. corporate charters, as well as any other business license). The law is modeled after Arizona’s statute, which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This law will not only act as a deterrent to construction companies from hiring unauthorized workers but will also hold them accountable if they do break the law,” said Mackenzie. “We cannot let companies get away with unprincipled hiring practices that take jobs away from legal citizens.”

House Bill 1170 was cosponsored by Rep. John Galloway (D-Bucks) and passed with strong bipartisan support in both chambers of the General Assembly. The House voted 170-28 in favor of the bill and the Senate voted 46-3.

“I am proud of the fact that Rep. Galloway and I were able to work together and find common ground on this issue,” said Mackenzie.

“We were also able to bring both union and nonunion stakeholders together to achieve the overarching goal of preserving jobs for legal U.S. citizens.”

Furthermore, a Zogby Analytics Online Survey completed in May of this year asked the question, “What also may be in the immigration plan is a requirement that all U.S. employers use E-Verify to make sure that all new employees are lawfully present in the U.S. and legally eligible to work. Do you support or oppose this requirement?” A total of 76.6% of voters who took the survey support the requirement.

The law will go into effect in one year.