Thursday
July 6, 2006
By
Dan Pilcher
CACI Senior Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer
dpilcher@COchamber.com
303.866.9600
CACI Members Speak out on Immigration
Issues as Colorado General Assembly begins Special Session
Today
In response to a survey on immigration
issues sent out to CACI members yesterday, 127 members
responded. The results of the survey can be found
at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/DisplaySummary.asp?SID=2327586&U=232758670956
Although this is not a scientific survey,
perhaps the most notable finding is that about 80 percent of
the respondents believe that businesses should help in the
battle against illegal immigration “. . . if there are
reasonable, fast, and reliable tools available to do so . .
.”
A respondent could answer more than one
question.
CACI Press Release Urges Legislators to
Carefully Consider Illegal Immigration Bills
CACI issues a statewide press release late
this morning after the Special Session began. Here’s the
content of the press release:
DENVER, CO – The Colorado Association of
Commerce and Industry (CACI), the state chamber of commerce,
urges state lawmakers to carefully consider the effect on
employers of the immigration-related proposals that will come
before them during the Special Session. Formally called
by Governor Bill Owens on June 28, the Special Session to
address immigration issues began at 10 a.m. today.
“As the statewide chamber of commerce,
CACI is actively collecting information on how immigration
proposals might affect its members and all Colorado
businesses,” said Chuck Berry, CACI President. “We’re
urging Colorado legislators to consider proposals that don’t
penalize businesses for good-faith efforts to follow
employment laws.”
During the Special Session, lawmakers will
be asked to address and take action on nine issues, most
concerning immigration. Last week, CACI sent legislative
leaders letters expressing concern over one of the proposals
that seeks to assess “significant” sanctions on employers for
hiring illegal immigrants. Few programs exist that allow
employers to verify which applicants are legal workers and
which are not. For example, The Basic Employment
Verification Pilot Program is a voluntary federal pilot
program. Further, a recent report by the U.S. General
Accountability Office (GAO) found that program would be unable
to handle the vast influx of participants if laws were to
mandate its use.
“Colorado employers have no foolproof
method to determine whether documents provided by a new hire
are valid or only appear valid,” Berry said. “Penalizing
businesses when there’s no way to accurately determine worker
eligibility won’t solve Colorado’s immigration problems, but
it will impede the state’s economic development
efforts.”
CACI is monitoring two other items that
address Colorado tax issues. In his Executive Order
calling for the Special Session, Governor Owens lists the
exemption of illegal immigrant wages as a business deduction,
as well as requiring a six percent withholding tax on employee
compensation reported on a 1099 form where an employee didn’t
include a Social Security or tax ID number.
“CACI’s lobbying team is actively
assessing proposed legislation and will continue working with
lawmakers to educate them on how proposals will affect
Colorado’s businesses and its economy,” said Donnah Moody,
CACI Director of Government Affairs.
National Information on Business
Perspective on Illegal Immigration Issue
For a national business perspective on the
illegal immigration issue, please visit the Web site of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with which CACI is formally
affiliated as Colorado’s state chamber of commerce:
http://www.uschamber.com/issues/index/immigration/default
For More Information . . .
As the CACI lobbying team analyzes the
bills upon their introduction, we will be communicating that
analysis to you via The CACI Legislative Update.
Members interested in any of the bills
that will emerge during the Special Session should contact
Donnah Moody, CACI Governmental Affairs Director, at
303.562.4551 or via e-mail at dmoody@COchamber.com
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