State Rep. Ben Robbins (R-Sylacauga) is making the case that his legislation requiring employers to disclose foreign worker immigration has the support of the majority of Alabamians.

Robbins introduced the “Workforce Transparency Act,” HB302, which would regulate labor brokers recruiting foreign workers to Alabama by requiring registration with the Department of Workforce, mandatory use of E-Verify and compliance with sponsorship reporting requirements.

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The proposal also extends enforcement authority to the Secretary of Workforce and Attorney General, imposing fines, penalties and potential business revocation for noncompliance.

Robbins discussed the bill Friday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”

“It’s going to be focusing on really two things,” Robbins explained. “One is, as the name says, our transparency with our workforce, who’s here, who is bringing immigrant labor into the state. And the other prong of the bill is, we’re going to make sure that we do not provide benefits to immigrants that they shouldn’t receive. And if we gave them benefits that they shouldn’t have received, we are going to allow our attorney general to sue their sponsors and recoup all monies paid by the state to them.”

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The state lawmaker argued that this is not just about enforcing immigration law, but it’s about being fiscally responsible.

“I think that what it really is is just being good stewards of our tax dollars,” he said. “If someone, whether they be legal, illegal immigrant, non-immigrant… we shouldn’t be just giving any kind of government benefit away just because. We need to make sure that you actually, under the rules, are entitled to receive it. And we’re going to start using [something] called the Saves Program. It’s kind of like E-verify, but it’s for government agencies, where you would put in someone’s information and make sure that they are a legal immigrant before you give them Medicaid or before you give them food stamps.”

Robbins also pushed back against the argument that enforcing immigration law will hurt the state’s economy.

“I’d say that we’re not dependent on illegal immigrant,” he said. “I know the day laborers we have out there, what manufacturing relies…I’ve worked really closely with [agricultural] interests and manufacturing interests. And you know, as long as they are using legal immigrants, people that have a legal right to be here, or they’re using an American citizen, they have nothing to worry about or be concerned about. And I think that in terms of dependency, yeah, there are some industries that might be solely relying on cheap labor, but I don’t think that it is as widespread as people believe. I think that it’s just some people exploiting the system.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee