Multiple New Senate and House Bills Address Unauthorized Alien Issues

Under a bill (S1617) introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee on March 4, employers that knowingly allow unauthorized aliens to operate a company motor vehicle will be subject to monetary penalties. For a first violation of this bill, employers would have to pay a penalty of $10,000. For a second violation, employers would be penalized $20,000.

Two bills, A2425 and S1621, both filed on March 4 in the Assembly and Senate respectively, expand upon an earlier bill (S1449) that was introduced in the Senate last month (see the March 2010 issue of the New Jersey eAuthority) regarding an employer’s obligations under the E-Verify program. Like S1449, the new bills would prohibit the employment of unauthorized aliens and impose penalties on employers that knowingly or intentionally employ unauthorized aliens. However, they would impose substantially stiffer monetary penalties for non-compliance (including the potential for up to $40,000 per unauthorized alien employee under S1621) than the penalties set forth in the earlier Senate bill.