Utah County Anti-Immigration Group Trying to Promote Business License Penalization System

A Utah County anti illegal immigration group is trying to promote an initiative that would punish businesses who hire illegal workers by revoking their Utah business licenses.

There are approximately 100,000 unemployed Americans in Utah. The anti-immigration group led by Russell Sias, wants to ensure that any available jobs are being filled by Americans. Although there is a law in place in Utah that mandates the use of the government e-verify system to verify legal status of workers in businesses employing a minimum of 15 workers, businesses can ignore the law without being penalized.

The anti-immigration group would like to impose harsh measures on businesses who disregard the ruling by suspending the business license from first-time violators and revoking the business license from second-time offenders.

As Billy Hesterman describes the plan in the Daily Herald, “The initiative would create a two-strike system for businesses when they hire an undocumented worker. The first offense would result in a suspension of the business's license and force it to report each new hire during a three-year probationary period. It would also force the business to agree to never hire another undocumented worker. The second offense would result in the business losing its license permanently.”

The group needs to get close to 16,000 signatures in order to have their initiative on the voting ballot.

This information is brought to you by Business Licenses, LLC (www.BusinessLicenses.com), offering business license compliance software, services, and outsourcing. To learn more, visit http://www.businesslicenses.com/services_corporate.php.