"It is very, very difficult to implement. We have an immigration system that is broken, and our economy needs workers. That is the bottom line," said Torres, who has also expressed concerns that the policy will open the door for discrimination against legal immigrant workers. "This is not the local government's responsibility, it is a federal issue. It is not fair for any local government to make decision like that."
Similar laws have been struck down by courts in other cities and states. Last year a federal court threw out a local ordinance in Hazleton, Pa., which sought to deny contracts and business permits to companies that employed illegal immigrants. The court ruled that the policy usurped a 1986 federal immigration law that forbids local jurisdictions from punishing businesses directly.
In March 2007, however, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt ended a contract with a janitorial firm hired to clean state office buildings because the company employed at least 18 illegal immigrants. But Blunt has also directed government officials to conduct random on-site inspections and retrieve documentation for all workers on the projects that use taxpayer dollars.
