Illegal immigrant on-the-job health bill stuck in committee

BOISE – A bill to force employers of illegal immigrants to pay for treating their on-the-job injuries stalled in a state Senate committee Monday.

Members of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee asked how employers would easily check the legal status of their workers under SB 1158, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Michael Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake. The bill would require companies to reimburse counties and health care providers for illegal immigrants’ workplace medical costs unless the employers could show they used a federal database or relied “in good faith” on documents indicating a right to work.

“That money doesn’t come from nowhere; it comes from the taxpayers” when employers don’t pick up the bill for health care, Jorgenson said.

Alex LaBeau, president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, said his organization supports the bill. It’s “narrowly tailored” and “a good step forward to dealing with some of the immigration problems we’ve heard throughout the state,” he said.

LaBeau said many of the 350 businesses IACI represents already use the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program endorsed by the bill as a way to check workers’ status. SAVE is a free online program that checks employee information with the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security. It helps ensure “your tax dollars are not funneled into the pockets of illegal aliens,” according to the Web site of Gov. Butch Otter.

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Cocolalla, opposed the bill, saying she’s worried “we may be forcing something on unknowing citizens.”

“As a small employer, I have never seen this Web site nor any reference to it in any material sent to me,” said Broadsword, who owns a log home company. “I think there’s a disconnect between the employers and the state and what you’re hoping to do.”

Jorgenson said he supported the bill at the request of constituents, such as counties that must pay for some illegal immigrants’ job-related health care.

Jorgenson noted that then-Gov. Jim Risch issued an executive order in December mandating that state agencies and contractors hire only legal workers.

“Any employer at no cost can run these checks, and they have safe haven,” Jorgenson said.