Illegal Workers May Cost Business : Immigration: Umberg bill that would allow local law enforcement to seize employer’s assets passes key Assembly panel.

Saying illegal immigrants are lured to the United States by the promise of jobs, an Orange County lawmaker won approval Tuesday from a key Assembly panel for a bill that would allow local law enforcement agencies to seize the assets of California businesses that hire undocumented workers.

The Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, long a graveyard for legislation deemed to be anti-immigrant, approved the measure authored by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) on a unanimous vote.

Under Umberg’s proposal, businesses with five or more workers could be fined as much as $2,000 for each illegal immigrant employed, on the first violation. If a business was found guilty in court of a second violation, virtually any of the firm’s assets could be seized. Subsequent violations would prompt criminal charges and prison time for business owners of as much as four years.

Among the items that could be seized if a business violated the law would be real estate, raw materials and products, equipment, accounting books and documents, motor vehicles, boats and aircraft.

“If an employer has built a business and is profiting on the backs of illegal aliens, then they should forfeit that profit,” Umberg argued.

Passage of Umberg’s bill marked a new direction for the Assembly Public Safety Committee, which has been criticized for not being tough enough. Of late, however, the panel has approved a string of law-and-order measures, and that new attitude appears to be spreading to the issue of immigration.

In addition to Umberg’s bill, the committee approved a measure by Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) authorizing a study of building a prison in Mexico for illegal immigrants convicted of crimes in the United States.

Although federal laws already exist that prohibit businesses from hiring illegal immigrants, those statutes are only occasionally enforced by the understaffed Immigration and Naturalization Service. Umberg contends his measure would draw California law enforcement agencies into the fray, providing personnel needed to better enforce the sanctions.

Citing a Bush Administration study that found more than 90% of all illegal immigrants are lured to the United States by the hope of jobs, Umberg suggested that enforcement of sanctions against employers would help lessen the incentive to seek work in the United States.

But civil libertarians and agriculture industry representatives said the bill could do more harm than good. They said any state law would conflict with existing federal statutes. In addition, they raised the specter of discrimination against workers and suggested that well-meaning employers could be falsely accused if duped by a worker possessing phony documents.

“If there’s a farmer doing everything he can to take a look at a worker’s documents that look legitimate but aren’t, that could pose problems,” said Stanley O. Van Vleck, a lobbyist representing dairy and agricultural producers.

Although two Republicans on the Public Safety Committee sided with Umberg, the bill could later meet resistance from the GOP. Republican leaders say sanctions would only punish business while failing to recognize that government health and welfare programs are a potent magnet for illegal immigration.

They also question where strapped police agencies will get the resources to begin enforcing immigration laws.

Umberg contends police would be able to recoup costs by cashing in on seized assets. He also said the measure, if made law, would have a solid deterrent effect once employers learned they faced losing a business.

In addition, Umberg said, the onus would be on prosecutors to prove in court that a business knowingly hired an illegal immigrant before a firm’s assets could be seized.

“There will be plenty of opportunities to enforce this law without splitting hairs,” he said.

Barry Broad, legal counsel for the California Teamsters labor union, said the bill is needed to keep businesses from continuing to tap “a huge supply of exploitable labor.” In the meantime, he said, the state is subsidizing health and welfare costs for illegal immigrants that otherwise would be borne by employers.

State officials estimate that illegal immigration costs the state about $4 billion a year for health, welfare and education.

“It’s about time we stop living this lie when it comes to our nation’s immigration policy,” Broad said. “Employers hire illegal aliens on a massive scale. . . . We need to take it seriously and stop providing lip service.”

Umberg’s bill has also received cautious support from the Legislature’s Latino Caucus. The caucus leader, Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), has signed on as a co-author and supports the sanctions against employers, but he has expressed some concern that the bill could fuel discrimination against Latinos.

The bill contains provisions calling for forfeited assets to go toward funding employment discrimination investigations as well as general law enforcement and county social service programs.