NCLC, Chambers Sue to Stop Oklahoma Immigration Law

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined with Oklahoma chambers and business associations to sue the state over its immigration law. The Chamber's National Litigation Center and co-plaintiffs filed for an injunction in U.S. District Court on February 1.

The groups are challenging the new law's requirements that employers doing business with the state use the federal government's experimental "Basic Pilot Program" to verify their own workers' eligibility and that of individual independent contractors. The lawsuit also takes aim at a provision that allows discharged employees to bring discrimination claims against their employers if they can show that the employer knew or "should have known" that another employee was unauthorized.

The Oklahoma immigration law is the latest in a slew of state and local laws and ordinances that seek to pre-empt federal immigration and employment law. The Chamber has vowed to fight these laws across the country. Last July, a federal court in Pennsylvania ruled that state and local regulation of unauthorized workers interferes with Congressional objectives and is unconstitutional.

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