Immigration Debate Stirs Again as Senate Bill Gets Tweaked

Democratic legislators highlighted their opposition to immigration reform proposals in the House and Senate Monday, vowing to fight measures that would ensure businesses do not hire illegal workers and punish those that do.

Sens. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, and Oscar Braynon, D-Miami, said the immigration issue should be handled by the federal government, and that "Arizona-lite" bills would adversely hurt the state's economy.

"Arizona has a black eye in the world. We don't need that black eye here in Florida," Joyner said.

Meanwhile, an immigration reform bill in the Senate that calls for employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the eligibility status of prospective employees was changed to allow businesses to accept valid identification like a driver's license from a U.S. state, a U.S. passport, Social Security card or birth certificate to exempt prospective employees from E-Verify checks. The Senate Judiciary Committee did not vote on the bill Monday.

A similar proposal in the House passed the House Judiciary Committee last week.

Full story to follow.