Instead of making employers liable for hiring unauthorized workers, this bill would shift accountability to third-party “brokers” who place workers with employers. 

This bill would create massive government overreach, expanding government regulations, surveillance and collection of private data.

This bill would deter a small number of authorized, lawfully present immigrants from receiving the small number of public benefits to which they are legally entitled. Immigrants are already screened for their eligibility to receive public benefits.

This bill will be up for consideration in Senate committee on Tuesday, April 1, at 1 p.m.

Analysis from our partners at HICA

HB 302 boils down to two main issues: 

(1) requiring massive amounts of data sharing by individuals and private entities with the Alabama government, and

(2) making it even more difficult for noncitizens with lawful status to access a limited amount of state and local public benefits.

This bill creates a new reporting and registration requirement for entities that place or work with foreign workers in Alabama. These entities would also be required to use E-Verify to confirm that the noncitizens are authorized to work and share considerable information with the state about the workers. The bill creates or modifies numerous penalties (fines, civil or criminal liability, etc.) for failure to comply with any of the registration, reporting, or E-Verify requirements. The bill also restricts access to state and local public benefits for noncitizens lawfully in Alabama, requiring they provide extensive information about their sponsors, and instituting processes by which the sponsor or the state can go after a noncitizen for receiving a state/local public benefit while they were receiving the same type of benefit from their sponsor.

Send a message to urge your senator to vote NO on HB 302.