E-Verify Tops List of Georgia Construction Law Issues For 2012, Article by Zack Rippeon
December 9, 2011
The majority of Georgia’s Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011 (the “IIREA”) is now in effect and will drastically alter the manner in which Georgia contractors engage in employment practices. Revered in national headlines as one of the nation’s toughest anti-illegal immigration laws, the IIREA places additional burdens on all Georgia employers to utilize the federal E-Verify system to ensure that new employees are properly documented legal workers. While the construction industry has been dealing with similar requirements for public contract work over the past several years, the IIREA impacts employment practices regardless of whether the job involves public funds.
The IIREA has received national attention as state governments, dismayed at the pace with which the federal government is dealing with illegal immigration, begin
to enact their own legislation. Other states, most notably Arizona and Alabama, are currently engaged in constitutional challenges of their respective laws. This past June, Judge Thomas Thrash of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia enjoined several provisions of the IIREA but upheld the E-Verify requirements.
Reprinted with the permission the Dixie Contractor.
by: Harry Z. "Zack" Rippeon, III
topics: Construction