Bill targets trafficking, hiring illegal persons

CARSON CITY -- A Nevada company that hires illegal immigrants could lose its business license under a bill approved unanimously Monday in the Assembly.

Under Assembly Bill 383, a new felony crime of trafficking in illegal persons also would be created. Those who transport illegal immigrants into the state would face sentences of one year or longer in prison. Sentences of as much as 20 years would be given to people who bring immigrants into the state for jobs where they become virtual slaves.

"It's a start," said Assembly Government Affairs Chairman Marilyn Kirkpatrick of the bill. "A lot of the time these people are treated like cargo. They are promised this job or that job and they pay thousands only to find when they are here that the job is a lot different."

But Kirkpatrick noted that the Nevada Tax Commission would not begin to pull the state business license of a company that hired illegal immigrants until the federal government first made a finding that the company had violated federal law with those hirings. Congress, however, has done little in recent months to address the illegal immigrant issue.

"We are hoping the federal government does take a stance," added Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas. "We want our procedures in place when it does."

But she noted the bill sets up a procedure where employers for the first time can determine through a state Web site whether employees have Social Security cards.

The illegal immigration bill was one of more than 80 approved in the Assembly on Monday as legislators of both houses rushed to comply with a self-imposed deadline that most bills pass at least one house by midnight.

Bills that fail will be declared dead for the remainder of the 2007 Legislature, which is scheduled to adjourn June 4.

Among the more prominent bills approved Monday were:

• AB433 would require the state Tax Commission to hold open hearings when people or companies seek reductions in state taxes. The commission could go behind closed doors only to receive confidential financial information from a company or individual.

But then, according to Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, the commission must reconvene, deliberate and vote in public.

The bill was triggered by closed hearings in 2005 in which the commission granted Southern California Edison a $40 million rebate.

"People should not have to guess why a government agency made the decision it did," Buckley said.

• AB478 would set up state regulations governing companies that make high-interest loans with interest rates of more than 40 percent. Buckley said the bill was designed to "rein in companies" that tried to get around the 2005 payday loan law. That law, she said, applied only to loans of less than a year, then the standard loan period of payday loan companies.

Since then "rogue" companies have issued high interest loans with terms of more than one year, according to Buckley.

She said some companies have interest rates of more than 500 percent. In some cases, customers pay $1,800 on a $200 loan. During hearings, she said witnesses testified that service members at Nellis Air Force often are victims of these companies.

• AB279 specifies the unredeemed value of expired gift cards goes to state government. The money collected would be used for education programs.

Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, said he realized the state was losing money last year when he tried to use a $100 card given him by his brother. A restaurant owner told him the card had expired a month earlier.

Through research, Kihuen learned the value of unredeemed gift cards goes to the state in which the company named on the card is incorporated. That typically is Delaware, according to Kihuen. He said similar legislation is expected to bring Texas $50 million. Although he does not know the benefit for Nevada education, Kihuen estimated it could be millions of dollars.

• AB494 requires employers to pay unemployment benefits to employees who cannot work because of a lockout. The bill was approved 28-14 with Republican John Carpenter of Elko joining the 27 Democrats in support of the bill.

"If you are locked out from working against your will, it makes sense to me you ought to get unemployment," said Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas.

But Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, said it would be a financial burden on employers in a time of labor unrest.