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The Indiana Attorney General’s Office is ready to launch an effort to crack down on businesses that hire undocumented immigrants using the provisions of a state law that takes effect July 1 — and the construction industry is likely to be a primary target.
Following a tour Thursday of the Signia by Hilton under construction near the Indiana Convention Center, Attorney General Todd Rokita told reporters that the law will empower his office to tackle labor trafficking.
“Starting July 1, you’re gonna see our office more and more at job sites like this to see exactly what’s going on and who’s being hired and how many,” said Rokita, who was joined by Central Midwest Carpenters Union representative Kyle Gresham.
Senate Enrolled Act 76, also known as the Indiana FAIRNESS Act, provides that employers who knowingly and intentionally hire undocumented immigrants could face civil actions.
Blake Lanning, assistant chief deputy for the Attorney General’s Office, said Thursday that the law’s employer provision marks the first time the state has ever established penalties for businesses that employ undocumented immigrants, even though the federal government outlawed the practice in 1986 through the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
Now under Indiana Code 22-5-9, employers must use “reasonable diligence to confirm the work eligibility of an individual,” such as using the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify system. Many critics of the legislation cautioned against the E-Verify system, saying it is unreliable and can produce false alerts.
The new law also allows an employer to use methods to confirm work eligibility that are “consistent with industry standard best practices.” However, the legislation does not elaborate on what falls under “best practices.”
Rokita said that although his office does not have the power to arrest individuals, it plans to make use of civil investigative demands, essentially civil subpoenas, to look into an employer’s hiring and workforce.
“And from there, we’re gonna go where those answers take us,” Rokita said, “and if [companies] don’t answer, then we’ll be in court.”
Rokita said his office has already received tips about employers who could be violating the new law, but he did not name any companies.
When asked by reporters whether his office would prioritize investigating specific industries, Rokita said officials will go where the complaints lead them — but he did indicate that the construction industry is likely to be a key focus.
According to the Center for Migration Studies, construction is the industry with the highest estimated number of undocumented workers in the U.S., accounting for 20% of the undocumented workforce.
Labor trafficking concerns
Gresham, the union’s representative and political lead, warned those employers who he says cut corners and exploit workers that their actions are “going to be noticed.”
“People who follow the rules are suffering because of the people who do not,” Gresham said.
Every year, thousands of Mexican and Central American immigrants experience forced labor in the U.S., according to the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking in its home state.
The anti-human trafficking organization Polaris reports that between 2015 and 2018, about 52% of the 17,000 likely victims of sex and labor trafficking reported to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and whose immigration status was recorded were not U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
“We do expect whatever kind of operation you run to have it be run fairly,” Rokita said. “And that means that you hire Hoosiers; you at least hire U.S. citizens. You do not try to exploit cheap labor from people who shouldn’t be here in the first place. It’s not fair to the workers that are here – who are here legally – but it’s also not fair even to the ones who are here illegally. It’s unsafe for them.”
FAIRNESS under pressure
SEA 76 is already under the legal microscope.
Last week, Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté sued Rokita in an effort to halt the legislation’s provision regarding immigration detainer requests, which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issues to local law enforcement to ask them to continue holding an individual in custody up to 48 hours beyond when they would otherwise be released. The detainers are meant to give the feds time to arrive and decide whether to deport the detainees.
Marté argues that the legislation violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and he holds that it could open his agency up to frivolous civil actions.
Rokita dismissed those arguments on Thursday and said he’s confidence that his office would ultimately prevail.
Marté is “grasping for straws,” Rokita said. “This law is completely constitutional.”
The lawsuit is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
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