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Berman himself has filed a number of immigrant-related bills this legislative session. One would make English the official language of Texas, a move that would save millions in printing costs, he said. The law wouldn't affect schools or ballots, he added.
Another bill would place an 8% surcharge on all money wired from Texas to Latin America. About $480 million could be collected from money sent to Mexico alone, the representative said. The proceeds would be earmarked for state hospitals.
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FYI, the guy proposing the law is also proposing this, so I guess a Republican can find a tax that he likes. I wonder if this could be considered illegal by the WTO since it is a duty imposed on an export of money to a specific region.
As for the homeowner exemption, one reason it might be necessary is that it's very difficult for a private individual to do background checks. For a long term employee it might be worth paying $50-100 for some kind of verification. It would probably be simpler to hire through an agency and place the onus on the agency to do the background check for any short term help.
I would admit that if this law passed and applied to homeowners I would have to think twice before hiring a handyman that my neighbor recommended.
What if the handyman claimed to own his own company, leading me to assume that the State of Texas had verified him, and instead of writing a check out to Mr. Ortiz I wrote it out the Muchos Illegatos Home Improvement Company? What if the bank honored the check under that name. If Mr. Ortiz turned out to be illegal, would I or the bank be in trouble?
Here in PA I discovered some guys tearing up my sidewalk a few years back to lay cable. They were working for a phone company, and an official looking phone company truck was up the block. I asked them for some information on what they were doing and they claimed to speak no English. I was never sure if they were joking. I know the phone company was too smart to hire illegals. But are the contractors and sub-contractors that smart?
My guess is that if the law passes, a whole cottage industry of disposable middleman companies will emerge to absorb the damage, much like already exists now. I the home building industry there used to be companies that did business under one name, went bankrupt, and were up and running under a new name.
From
here
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the world's largest retailer, escaped criminal charges when it agreed to pay $11 million, a record fine in a civil immigration case, to end a federal probe into its use of illegal immigrants as janitors.
Additionally, 12 businesses that provided contract janitor services to Wal-Mart will pay $4 million in fines and plead guilty to criminal immigration charges, officials said.
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