Ultimately, HB 4061 is a flawed and unnecessary measure that will lead to discrimination, economic harm, and administrative burdens without meaningfully improving immigration enforcement. (/fin)

6. Punishing individuals with a felony perjury charge and up to 15 years of imprisonment for a false statement on an employment verification form is an extreme and disproportionate penalty. Applying such a severe penalty to administrative paperwork in the employment process is extremely punitive.

5. Immigration enforcement is primarily a federal responsibility. HB 4061 forces Michigan businesses into a role that should be handled by federal agencies, leading to potential conflicts with federal law and exposing employers to unnecessary legal risks.

4. E-Verify requires the collection and transmission of sensitive personal information, raising serious concerns about data security and the potential for misuse. The system has been subject to breaches in the past, putting workers at risk of identity theft and fraud.

3. Verification mandates disproportionately impacts communities of color and immigrant workers which leads to an increase in workplace discrimination. Employers may be more likely to engage in unlawful profiling or preemptively avoid hiring individuals perceived as immigrants

2. Burden on Workers and Employers - Mandating the use of E-Verify and additional verification processes imposes an undue burden on both workers and businesses. With E-Verify’s history of errors, wrongful employment denials for U.S. citizens and legal residents can impact employment and staffing.

1. E-Verify is plagued by incorrect information. Data from E-Verify’s own website from FY 2023 showed that more than 58,000 people who were initially deemed “not work authorized” later had their status changed to “work authorized” after contesting their initial designation.

In total, we had six major concerns:

This bill poses serious risks to civil liberties, privacy, and economic fairness in our state.

Big thanks to both Reps. @caglanville.bsky.social and @verostaterep10.bsky.social for their leadership on this package!
#mileg #FreedomToRead #RightToRead

While states across the country are grappling with challenges to intellectual freedom and efforts to censor library materials, HBs 6034 and 6035 give Michigan the opportunity to lead by example in preventing these attacks.

The bills prohibit the removal of materials based on the religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics of the author or the content’s viewpoint, ensuring that personal biases or ideological pressures do not erode public access to information.

“Support of this package is by no means endorsement of adultery, but rather support for cleaning up outdated, unenforced statutes,” Zawacki told lawmakers.

Kyle Zawacki, legislative director of the ACLU of Michigan, called the adultery ban a “relic of a bygone era” that “perpetuates stigma and discrimination” and undermines government transparency by clogging up the state’s penal code with unenforced crimes.