Temp worker bill advances in Ariz. House

Ronald J. Hansen
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 18, 2008 05:16 PM

Gene Feldman said he checks the employment eligibility of all the workers at his structural steel company and has advertised in an effort to fill empty jobs that pay at least $12 an hour.

Still, the Tempe business owner is losing workers.

"We've hired one person since Jan. 1. He came from out of state," Feldman told Arizona lawmakers. "I'm very confident about my business and very worried about the future."

Feldman, like many employers, wants the Legislature to pass a bill that would seek federal permission for Arizona to create and run a guest-worker program for Mexicans to fill jobs Americans aren't taking.

In the wake of the state's new employer-sanctions law, which threatens to pull licenses from businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants, the proposed legislation is seen as another bold step toward addressing a problem that federal authorities have not.