New Laws Crack Down On Riverside County Illegal Immigration

Five Riverside county cities are cracking down on illegal immigrants as their unemployment rates soar.

Last month, Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore, Menifee and Norco began requiring businesses to check the immigration status of new workers through the federal E-Verify database. Employers that don’t can lose their business licenses.

Murrieta plumber Pablo Haro approves of the crackdown. He tells the Los Angeles Times that the construction crash has hurt the job market and it’s hard to compete with illegal immigrants who will work for tiny wages.

However, nearby cities have chosen not to adopt such ordinances and some analysts contend that the laws are inspired more by the towns’ political conservatism than their job situations.

Critics, meanwhile, say the law will just prompt employers to pay workers under the table.