House Bill 510 looks to require companies to verify employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S.

BOISE, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Idaho lawmakers recently paused an anti-illegal immigration bill that would require companies to use E-Verify to ensure recent hires are legally eligible to work.

House Bill 510 adds to Idaho employment law to prohibit the employment of illegal aliens and requires employers to E-Verify an employee’s legal employment status as a condition of employment.

Idaho has an estimated 30 thousand unauthorized workers making up a large section of agriculture jobs.

President and CEO of NumbersUSA James Massa told KMVT E-Verify is a free program where employers can check potential employee’s social security or work authorization number to verify they are in the United States legally and eligible to work.

“I think what you’re seeing is a push by big Ag to say we want to have cheap labor in Idaho, now they can have all the agricultural labor from foreign workers that they want, under the legal program called H-2A,” said Massa. “That ensures that the person who’s here has certain rights, that they have certain wages, they have certain hours, they have a place to live they have meals provided. But when they skip that and do the illegal route they get cheaper labor and those poor laborers don’t have any rights to be able to have a workplace that’s safer and more conducive for them having a good livelihood.”

Massa added if HB510 passes existing undocumented workers currently in Idaho would not be affected, it would only affect future hires.

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