(The Center Square) – Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown is proposing legislation that would require employers tip off their workers when federal immigration enforcement agencies request their eligibility information.
“This bill would mean that workers get the same information as their employers,” Brown said at a Dec. 5 press conference.
Known as the Immigrant Worker Protection Act, Brown said the proposal would “level the playing field for workers. I wish we were not dealing with an administration hell-bent on meeting a hate-fueled, fabricated deportation quota rather than keeping our communities safe.”
Washington state has been one of many that have had Immigration and Customer Enforcement raids; one conducted in Seattle in June resulted in the arrest of three men. That same month, protesters clashed with Tukwila police officers and federal agents at an ICE check in located in the city. Last month, ICE arrested people in Redmond.
Brown argued at the press conference that ICE raids are making workers “scared that ICE will show up at their job at any moment to take anyone that looks like an immigrant.”
He added that “we’re not asking for additional legislative funding to help us support that work.”
Speaking at the press conference, state Rep. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle, said the proposed law “gives clarity because it’s not just the workers that are afraid. It’s the employers that are afraid, it is our restaurant owners and our car dealerships and the auto repair shop, it is about our grocery stores. It’s about schools.”
She also claimed that audits of worker’s eligibility information “are sowing fear, destabilizing families and undermining community trust.”
Washington state does not require employers use E-Verify when hiring employees. Several state laws also place significant restrictions on how state and local law enforcement agencies can interact with federal agencies enforcing immigration laws.
Among them is the 2019 Keep Washington Working Act, which forbids state officials and resources from being used in immigration enforcement efforts. That includes providing information to federal agencies about someone’s immigration status. Local officers also cannot be deputized for immigration enforcement and cannot detain individuals solely on the basis of violating federal immigration laws.
