Florida Governor Signs New Immigration Reform Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an immigration reform bill Wednesday that will require private employers to use the federal E-Verify system to verify workers' immigration status. The law takes effect July 1 and applies only to employers with 25 or more employees. Employers who do not comply with the law can be fined $1000 per day until they comply.
It is important to note that the E-verify system is not new; it is a federal platform that was originally created to verify the immigration status of government employees. Florida's government contracting system requires every worker to be E-Verify certified, and subcontractors on these projects must provide the general contractor with an affidavit certifying that they are not using unauthorized immigrant labor. Today, many illegal immigrants are doing jobs that documented people simply don't want to do, so for many firms, the new law simply means a new way of doing business to get around the 25-person threshold.
I expect this legislation will lead to further segmentation of the industry with smaller groups of subcontractors not exceeding the 25 employee limit to avoid E-Verify compliance.
Economists believe the new law will have a detrimental effect on Florida's economy because it will make it more difficult to effectively exercise freedom of contract and freedom of labor—and that could have a negative impact on consumer prices and therefore inflation.
Author: Elina Linderman
