An Act To Ensure Fair Employment Opportunity for Maine Citizens and Legal Residents
Maine Legislature, Session 128, LD 1307
Committee: Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development
Sponsors: GINZLER, MAKER, SIROCKI, STEWART, TUELL, LANGLEY
Amends: 26 MRSA §871

Legislative Document
No. 1307
H.P. 904
House of Representatives, April 4, 2017
An Act To Ensure Fair Employment Opportunity for Maine 
Citizens and Legal Residents
Reference to the Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development 
suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative GINZLER of Bridgton.  (BY REQUEST)
Cosponsored by Senator MAKER of Washington and
Representatives: SIROCKI of Scarborough, STEWART of Presque Isle, TUELL of East 
Machias, Senator: LANGLEY of Hancock.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  26 MRSA §871, sub-§1-B is enacted to read: 
1-B.  Inquiry.  An employer, before employing a person or referring a person for 
employment, shall make a good faith inquiry as to whether that person is a United States 
citizen or an alien, and if the inquiry reasonably indicates that the person is an alien, the 
employer shall use the E-Verify program to verify the employment eligibility of that 
person.  As used in this section, "E-Verify program" means the federal E-Verify program 
operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security and other federal 
agencies or any successor or equivalent program used to verify a person's employment 
eligibility. 
Sec. 2.  26 MRSA §871, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2009, c. 637, §2, is further 
amended to read: 
2.  Penalty.  Violation of subsection 1 or 1-A is a Class E crime.  It is an affirmative 
defense to prosecution under subsection 1 that the employer, before employing a person 
or referring a person for employment, made a good faith inquiry as to whether that person 
was a United States citizen or an alien, and if the inquiry reasonably indicated that the 
person was an alien, the employer made a further good faith inquiry that reasonably 
indicated used the E-Verify program to verify that the alien was lawfully admitted to the 
United States for permanent residence or that the United States Immigration and 
Naturalization Service had authorized the alien to accept employment in the United 
States. 
A.  A good faith inquiry under this subsection must be in writing.  An employment 
application form that requests citizenship data, or an alien registration number if the 
applicant is an alien, meets the requirement of a good faith inquiry in writing. 
B.  A social security account number card is not considered evidence of the United 
States Immigration and Naturalization Service's authorization for an alien to accept 
employment in the United States. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires an employer, before employing a person or referring a person for 
employment, to make a good faith inquiry as to whether that person is a United States 
citizen or an alien, and if the inquiry reasonably indicates that the person is an alien, the 
employer must use the E-Verify program operated by the United States Department of 
Homeland Security to verify the employment eligibility of that person.