Oregon voters to have say on E-Verify Mandate

Oregon voters will soon have the chance to vote on an E-Verify mandate for businesses with 5 or more employees after the state’s Supreme Court ruled on the final ballot language last week. Oregonians for Immigration Reform have been working for years to get the initiative, IP 52, on the ballot after successfully passing an initiative to ban driver’s licenses to illegal aliens in 2014.

OFIR had to take the issue all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court after the state’s attorney general wrote ballot language that would have focused on the penalties for businesses that don’t comply with the mandate instead of focusing on the E-Verify mandate itself. Justice Rives Kistler, on behalf of the full court, wrote “Federal immigration law makes it unlawful for ‘a person or other entity *** to hire, or to recruit or refer for a fee, for employment in the United States an alien knowing the alien is an unauthorized alien.'”

According to data from Pew Hispanic, illegal aliens make up 5% of the state’s workforce, while many vulnerable workers in the state have unemployment rates around 50%.

Since a Supreme Court decision in 2011 that allowed an E-Verify mandate for businesses in Arizona stand, 16 states across the country have E-Verify requirements in place.

The Oregon initiative would require businesses with at least 5 employees run all new hires through E-Verify. Business would receive a warning after the first violation and face a suspension of their business license for at least 30 days, but not more than a year for every subsequent violation.

For more information, see Breitbart.com