Employers Now Liable For Workers’ Immigration Status

Temecula businesses will have to make sure employees can legally work in the United States to comply with an employment verification law unanimously passed by the City Council, it was reported today.

Mayor Jeff Comerchero said the “E-Verify” ordinance is no different than a city enforcing speeding laws that are already on the books, the Press- Enterprise reported.

“We’re obligated to enforce the law, and this is the law,” the newspaper quoted Comerchero as saying.

Temecula’s new law, modeled after one in the city of Lancaster, will require holders of business licenses granted by the city to use E-Verify — a free Internet-based system run by the federal government that allows employers to check workers’ information against immigration and Social Security records, the Press-Enterprise reported.

Businesses will be barred from knowingly employing undocumented workers. Those that violate the ordinance will risk losing their business licenses, the newspaper reported.

Temecula is the latest Riverside County city to require E-Verify, according to the Press-Enterprise. Menifee passed its own E-Verify law last month, and the Lake Elsinore council gave final passage to its E-Verify ordinance Tuesday night. The Murrieta council could also pass an E-Verify law.