The saga of Arizona’s employer sanctions law continues in this year’s general election in the form of Proposition 202: Stop Illegal Hiring.

Opponents say the initiative is misleading, and proponents say it will close a loophole in the current employer sanctions law.

“It’s one of the biggest smokescreens in Arizona election history,” said Tim Rafferty, a spokesman for Riders United for a Sovereign America, an organization that opposes the proposition. “The group behind this is the same group who took the current law to court.”

The current state law, passed in 2007, implemented E-Verify, an online system that requires employers to check the work status of new hires by comparing information from an employee's I-9 form against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security databases.

If passed, the proposition would make E-Verify optional, Rafferty said. E-Verify has a 90 percent accuracy rate, he said.

“This is big business that doesn’t want to use E-Verify because it works,” Rafferty said.

The proposition is a complete fraud, said State Rep. Russell Pearce, who wrote the bill the proposition stands to change.

“Don’t be fooled. It’s not stop illegal hiring; it’s employer amnesty,” he said.

Garrick Taylor, a spokesman for Stop Illegal Hiring, said the current law isn’t strong enough.

“Companies have been raided that have used E-Verify. It’s not a rock solid antidote against having illegal workers in your business,” Taylor said.

If passed, Taylor said the proposition would target unlicensed businesses and the cash market. He also said it would raise fines and direct that money to offset the costs of illegal immigration.

“A business could be charged up to three times [the current punishment] if it is unlicensed and hires illegals,” Taylor said. “It puts some teeth in the law.”

However, Rafferty said if Proposition 202 passes it would rip the teeth out of the current law, arguing that the Silent Witness provision of the bill would be removed, which allows anonymous complaints against a business suspected of hiring illegal immigrants. Rafferty said more than 900 tips were called in this year.

“Ask any law enforcement agency about the importance of Silent Witness,” he said.

Taylor said removing the provision decreases the chance of manipulating the reporting process.

Political science senior Lisa Fernandez said the removal of the provision is one of the aspects she likes about Proposition 202.

Fernandez, president of ASU’s Young Democrats, said there are some downsides to the initiative, but she is going to vote yes. The Young Democrats do not endorse the proposition.

“It prevents anonymous and oftentimes racially profiled accusations,” Fernandez said.

Political science senior Kirsten Pickering said the proposition sidesteps the issue. She said employers want to be able to use labor from south of the border, and the solution is to find a legal way for people to be able to work here.

The proposition would go easy on employers who hire illegal immigrants, continuing the problem, she said.

“Employers need to push Congress to improve the temporary worker program,” Pickering said. “We haven’t figured out why the legal avenues aren’t working.”

Reach the reporter at philip.haldiman@asu.edu.