Michael Webb, president of Muskogee Bridge Co., said his company will be forced to curtail jobs and spend thousands of dollars verifying employees because of House Bill 1804.

Additionally, HB 1804 will place employers in the precarious position of violating federal immigration laws if they abide by the state law, Webb said.

''We are being damaged already, but the biggest exposure is that we are being asked to violate federal law,'' Webb said. ''We cannot discriminate against or racially profile anyone based on state law.''

Muskogee Bridge Co. is a $40 million company, employing 225 people, many of whom are seasonal workers, Webb said.

The company has 14 construction contracts with Oklahoma, including a major contract to renovate Interstate 40 in Oklahoma City, court records show.

To verify an employee's legal status through HB 1804, the employer can use several options, including the Social Security Number Verification Service; the Basic Pilot Program, also known as E-Verify; or a third-party equivalent.

Webb said that using these systems will be cumbersome and will surely cause work delays and drive up contract costs.

''The complexity of verifying a worker as legal under these systems will be extremely time consuming

These worker-verification programs have varying degrees of accuracy, according to court documents that support an injunction against HB 1804.

Between June 2004 and March 2007, employers made 3.5 million attempts to verify the eligibility of a worker through the Web-based Basic Pilot Program.

Of that number, 744,000 involved a Social Security number that was used multiple times. That's 21 percent of the total.

Not all of the duplications were deemed to be identity fraud. However, it is believed that thousands of the duplications were for undocumented workers using other people's Social Security numbers to meet the requirements for employment, records state.

Webb is one of several employers who supports a federal lawsuit to stop implementation of key elements of HB 1804.

The lawsuit states employers have no illegal workers but still will be irreparably harmed by the law's employee-verification requirements.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed for a federal injunction in federal court in Oklahoma City on Feb. 1.

The U.S. Chamber has joined the Oklahoma City and Tulsa chambers to sue the state over its immigration-reform law.

The lawsuit targets specific aspects of House Bill 1804 that will take effect July 1 and primarily affect private employers, said Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, the main author of HB 1804.

Until the contested provisions of HB 1804 take effect in July, private employers currently verify worker eligibility through I-9 forms laid out by federal law, Terrill said.

All Muskogee Bridge employees have filled out I-9 forms with accompanying documentation, Webb said.

Besides prohibiting the hiring of illegal immigrants, the new state law requires proof of citizenship to receive certain government benefits and makes it illegal to knowingly transport illegal immigrants.

Through the injunction, the U.S. Chamber is seeking to stop the implementation of two sections that deal with private businesses and contractors.

The lawsuit challenges a requirement that employers doing business with the state use the federal government's voluntary experimental program for verifying work eligibility.

It also challenges requirements for businesses to verify the work status of individual independent contractors to avoid state tax penalties.

Terrill said Oklahoma's contractors are hooked on cheap illegal labor and are making excuses to avoid using a workable system.

''The system is not cumbersome,'' Terrill said. ''It is total and absolute nonsense to say it is. We did a demonstration at the Capitol, and it took less than a minute to obtain the verifications.''

Additionally, Terrill said employers using the system are held harmless for any mistakes or data-entry errors involving the system.

''The database is phenomenal now, and it will only get better," he said. "There is no downside for the employer if there are errors.''

Omer Gillham 581-8301
omer.gillham@tulsaworld.com