Gov. Pat McCrory signed House Bill 318, the Protect North Carolina Workers Act, into law Wednesday. The law expands the federally mandated E-Verify program, which North Carolina adopted in 2012 and is designed to ensure employers hire legal citizens.
The law also eliminates so-called “sanctuary cities,” or cities that have adopted policies designed not to prosecute undocumented people.
“No one should tie the hands of our police and our sheriffs and other law enforcement officers to enforce the laws that they have sworn to uphold,” McCrory said. “When these laws are not enforced, the process that makes North Carolina and this country great breaks down.”
But HB 318 leaves an entire industry untouched by E-Verify regulations — it contains built-in exemptions for the agricultural industry.
“(E-Verify) is a concession to powerful agricultural interests who would rather not have to check the immigration status of their employees,” said Clermont Ripley, staff attorney with the N.C. Justice Center, in an email.
By law, employees subject to E-Verify screening include “any individual who provides services or labor for an employer in this state for wages or other remuneration. The term does not include an individual whose term of employment is less than nine months in a calendar year,” according to N.C. Gen. Stat. 64, Art. 2.
The definition exempts most farm workers, because they work less than nine months in a calendar year, Ripley said — meaning they can work even without the legal authorization.
“To me, it’s the epitome of hypocrisy,” said UNC sophomore Chris Guevara, a vocal opponent of HB 318. “The farming industry is a $78 billion industry — I pulled that number from Pat McCrory himself — and of the farm workers that work here, 53 percent are undocumented.”