McCain: Enforce Immigration Laws On Undocumented Workers, But Not On Businesses That Hire Them

Since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed the state’s new anti-immigrant bill into law last month, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been a fervent supporter. The law gives state police broad power to identify, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants. McCain, who called the law a “good tool,” said last night on Fox News that he is “proud of the work” Brewer is doing on immigration, and justified the law “because the federal government would not enforce its responsibilities.”

But while McCain offers support for this new draconian law targeting day-laborers and other undocumented immigrants, he is not in favor of enforcing laws prohibiting employers from hiring undocumented workers. Instead, he would rather “secure the borders” before holding Arizona businesses accountable to the law:

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: What about businesses who hire people who are not documented?

MCCAIN: Once we secure the borders we should prosecute employers to the fullest extent of the law that hire someone that’s in this country illegally.

“Why can’t we do those two things at the same time?” Van Susteren asked. “We should get the borders secure so there is not this symptom which is people coming to this country and working illegally,” McCain replied. Watch it:

Back in 2007, McCain wanted to “strengthen the laws and penalties against those who hire illegal aliens and violate immigration law.” Now, it seems that McCain is all for enforcing immigration laws when when it is politically convenient, as Arizona businesses are presumably more organized and have more money and influence than the state’s undocumented workers.

But letting business get away with skirting immigration laws hurts Arizona’s workers. As the Wonk Room’s Andrea Nill has noted:

Unscrupulous employers who hire and abuse undocumented labor drive down wages and working conditions for all the Americans who work alongside them. They also put honest businesses who want to abide by immigration and labor laws in a position in which they are forced to compete on an uneven playing field.

An AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work and the National Employment Law Project report released last year stated that lax law enforcement on businesses that hire undocumented workers has “created incentives for shady employers to continue hiring and abusing” them and “deportation of their employees may excuse those employers from complying with labor laws.”