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Dear Members, Colleagues and Community,
Our President and CEO, Mónica Villalobos, recently shared the negative implications for our economy and small business owners if we do not stop the HCR 2060 bill.
Read the full article below and know that your Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will continue to be the voice of the small business owner.
My View: Why is Arizona Legislature going backwards in its approach to immigration?
By Mónica Villalobos – Contributing writer
Feb 23, 2024
Didn’t we learn our lesson with Senate Bill 1070?
It’s been 14 years since Arizona sparked headlines and condemnation around the world by imposing what many at the time viewed as the most draconian, state-based anti-immigrant law in the nation.
SB 1070’s passage triggered mass protests, a national economic boycott, federal court challenges, labor shortages, a drop in tax revenue, lost tourism and convention business– and the recall by voters of an Arizona Senate president for the first time in history.
Add to that the havoc it wreaked among immigrant communities across the state, and it’s no wonder that it has taken all these years to restore our reputation as a community that’s widely regarded as business friendly and proud of our increasingly diverse population.
Now some members of the Arizona Legislature seem bound and determined to reverse our hard-fought gains by passing House Concurrent Resolution 2060 (HCR 2060).
The bill requires contract workers paid over $600 per year be cleared for employment through E-Verify, the federal system provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. HCR 2060 sidesteps an almost certain veto by Gov. Katie Hobbs would send the bill directly to the voters as a Nov. 5 ballot measure.
Violators could face felony charges
Implementing HCR 2060 could do serious harm to Arizona’s booming economy by creating burdensome red tape for all involved as we experience labor shortages. This also stymies entrepreneurship by raising the fear of criminal prosecution. Violators could be charged with a Class 6 state felony, which can result in fines, probation, or even prison time, for each violation if they failed to comply with the law thereby criminalizing taxpaying citizens and people that want to work.
State, county and city governments that receive support to fund public welfare programs would have to follow these rules as well. This is redundant due to current requirements for such programs. However, all agencies in the state would also be required to use E-verify by Jan. 1, 2029, another overreach slowing the process of obtaining state licenses.
Didn’t we learn our lesson with SB 1070? The passage of that bill in 2010, almost all of which was overturned in federal court, had disastrous economic consequences, according to a report released late that same year by Elliott D. Pollack & Company, including:
- $141 million in lost, direct spending by convention-goers
- Nearly 3,000 lost jobs
- $86.5 million in lost earnings
- $253 million in lost economic output of tourism industry.
- $9.4 million in lost tax revenue
And all of that damage came in just the first few months. The long-term economic impact to the state is still being felt.
Why would we derail the strong economic recovery we’ve worked so hard to sustain since the end of the pandemic by returning our state to pariah status as a stronghold of anti-immigrant sentiment? HCR2060 and similar legislation veil the worst biases, play to unfounded fears, detract from the collaborative mega-region trade partnership, adversely impact our state economy and take us back to a future that we know doesn’t work.
Mexico is Arizona's largest trading partner
Over the past decade-plus, we’ve gone from being labeled “the show us your papers” state, to proving once again that Arizona is a great place to do business.
It took years of hard work by former Gov. Doug Ducey and now Gov. Hobbs, organization leaders and other major business groups to restore relations with Mexico, our state’s No.1 trading partner.
Today, the largest source of Arizona imports comes from Mexico, according to the University of Arizona Eller College of Management. One-third of our state’s imports($11.8 billion) came from Mexico in 2023.
Tourism between Arizona and Mexico remains vital to our state’s economic prosperity. The Arizona-Mexico Commission reports nearly “3.6 million people from Mexico choose Arizona as a travel destination,” every year, “representing the largest segment of international tourism” to our state, while “tourists from Mexico have an annual economic impact of $2.5 billion and support approximately 30,000 jobs throughout Arizona.”
HCR 2060’s passage and implementation will likely spark protests and legal battles the state will almost certainly lose, given that the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that creating and enforcing immigration law is a federal responsibility.
Why waste that time, and our fellow taxpayers’ money, defending a law that will be ultimately indefensible.
Didn’t we learn our lesson with Senate Bill 1070? For the sake of Arizona, let’s hope so.
Source: Phoenix Business Journal
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