Time Running Out on E-Verify Bill at Florida Legislature

Time is running out on an E-Verify immigration bill at the Florida Legislature.

With just a week to clear three assigned subcommittees -- a virtual impossibility -- House Bill 1315 appears all but dead.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Port St. Lucie, would require employers to run the names of all new hires through the free federal E-Verify system to determine legal status.

A watered down E-Verify passed the state Senate late last session but never got a hearing in the House. The legislation has been vigorously opposed by a coalition of business groups, agricultural interests and liberal activists.

Barring a waiver from House leadership, which appears unlikely, the only alternate path for HB 1315's survival would be as an attachment to a bill that is moving. But that is permissible only if the host bill is on a related subject, and there are none in the hopper.

Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina have all enacted E-Verify laws.

Gov. Rick Scott, by executive order, last year directed that state agencies under his authority use E-Verify to screen new employees.