Builders and Contractors Exchange
Weekly Bulletin: 23 feb 2007
Employment of undocumented workers may bar receipt of government contracts
On January 25, 2007, the Senate voted 94-0 in favor of an amendment to the minimum wage bill (H.R. 2) that would bar companies employing undocumented immigrants from receiving government contracts for seven years, or ten years if that company held a government contract at the time of the offense. However, the amendment, proposed by Senator Sessions (R-AL), would exempt employers who voluntarily participate in the Basic Pilot program. The Basic Pilot Program allows an employer to sign up with the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to enable the employer to check the validity of numbers on the social security cards offered by prospective employees.
Senator Sessions offered the amendment to the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (H.R. 2), a bill introduced in the House as part of the Democratic leadership’s 100 hours agenda. The bill would raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over a period of two years. Among other differences, the version of H.R. 2 passed by the House did not include the Sessions amendment. After final passage of H.R. 2 in the Senate, a conference of House and Senate members will have to meet to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill before the measure can be sent to the President.
As such, even though the Senate wants to bar companies employing undocumented immigrants from receiving government contracts, the House version of the law is very different, and until the Senate version and the House version are negotiated or reconciled in committee, it is anyone’s guess what the final version of the law will actually contain. The point of this article, however, is that employers must be aware that government officials are beginning to take steps to crack down on the I-9 employment verification process. In addition, government officials seem very willing to punish employers in a variety of ways, including this proposed bar from receiving government contracts for companies employing undocumented immigrants.
To learn more about the Basic Pilot Program, which allows an employer to sign up with the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to enable the employer to check the validity of numbers on the social security cards offered by prospective employees, consult with an immigration attorney after reviewing this DHS website: https://www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration/StartPage.aspx?JS=YES&AccessMethod.
Questions?
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This article is meant to bring awareness to this topic and is not intended to be used as legal advice.