The Legal Arizona Workers Act, sometimes called the “Employer Sanctions Law,” went into effect on January 1, 2008. That law was amended in several respects by the Arizona Legislature, effective May 1, 2008. This Web site provides basic information about the law, as amended, and explains how any member of the public can report an employer’s violation of this law.

The Legal Arizona Workers Act, as amended, prohibits businesses from knowingly or intentionally hiring an “unauthorized alien” after December 31, 2007. Under the statute, an “unauthorized alien” is defined as “an alien who does not have the legal right or authorization under federal law to work in the United States.” The law also requires employers in Arizona to use the “E-Verify” system (a free Web-based service offered by the federal Department of Homeland Security) to verify the employment authorization of all new employees hired after December 31, 2007.

The Attorney General’s Office has several roles regarding The Legal Arizona Workers Act:

• This Office is vigorously defending the new law in the federal courts, where several business associations, chambers of commerce, and others are asserting that the law is unconstitutional and are asking the courts to prohibit the State of Arizona from enforcing the law. To date, we have been highly successful and the trial court and the appellate court have denied several requests for injunctions. That litigation is ongoing, so please check back for any breaking news about the case.
  
  
• The law authorizes the County Attorneys and the Attorney General to investigate complaints. However, if a complaint is lodged with the Attorney General’s Office, and if this Office investigates and determines that the complaint is not false and frivolous, the case must then be turned over to the County Attorney of the county where the unauthorized alien is or was employed, because the law does not give the Attorney General the authority to pursue sanctions against the employer in court. That power is given only to the County Attorneys.
  
  
• This Office has created a prescribed form that may be used to lodge a complaint with any County Attorney or with this Office. The amended law specifies that any complaint made on this prescribed complaint form “shall” be investigated, while any complaint that is made in some other format “may” be investigated.
  
  
• This Office has established a new Voluntary Employer Enhanced Compliance Program. Any employer that enrolls in the program and fulfills the program’s requirements will not be subject to sanctions. The new program is explained in the Frequently Asked Questions, and the Affidavit and Agreement and instructions needed to enroll in the program is available for download from this Web site. Also on this Web site is a list of employers enrolled in the Voluntary Employer Enhanced Compliance Program.
  
  
• Every three months , this Office asks the United States Department of Homeland Security for a list of employers that have enrolled in the E-Verify program using an Arizona address. The most recent such list is posted on this Web site.
  
  
• As time goes on, this Web site will display more and more information. For example, if and when the courts begin entering orders against employers who are found to have violated the law, those court orders will be available on this Web site, along with names and locations of employers who have been sanctioned for a first violation.

The Attorney General’s Office will do everything in its power to ensure that the new law is fully and fairly enforced in a non-discriminatory manner. If you are thinking of making a complaint, it is important for you to know that under the amended law, any complaint that is based solely on race, color or national origin shall not be investigated.

At the same time, we want to do what we can to inform all employers in Arizona how they can comply with this new statute. This Web site offers information that should assist employers in abiding by the new law. We hope you find this Web site useful and welcome your suggestions about to any way to improve it.