Thread: Businesses fear bill would make them enforcers

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spe ... 45663.html

June 7, 2006, 1:11AM



IMMIGRATION
Burden of the law
Businesses fear bill would make them enforcers
By GEBE MARTINEZ
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - When federal agents raided IFCO Systems operations in Houston and other cities this spring as part of a 26-state inquiry into alleged hiring of illegal immigrants, local business leaders said they were not alarmed.

"Companies that knowingly violate federal laws are going to be held accountable," Jeff Moseley, president of the Greater Houston Partnership, said recently.

But what is causing heartburn to business owners in Houston and nationwide is a pending immigration bill they fear could place too much burden on them to enforce laws against hiring illegal immigrants.

As a central force in the national immigration reform debate, business groups agree tougher enforcement of employer sanctions will be just as critical as more guards along the border.

But they want assurances that new laws do not hold them unduly responsible if the verification system is not well-funded, workable or reliable.

An equally important demand by the business community is the creation of a guest worker visa program that will help meet economic needs.

"It's one of the more critical issues facing our community in probably a quarter of a century," Moseley said of the immigration debate. With Houston's economic development plan calling for expansion of port operations to help expand major industries such as energy, health and space, the need for supporting industries and workers is going to be great, he added.

"It makes sense that we would look at some thoughtful work force initiatives to tap into the younger demographic workers coming from Mexico," Moseley said.

In the immigration battle, business groups are aligned with President Bush and the Senate, which passed a wide-reaching bill in May that includes border security, a temporary worker program and a citizenship path for most of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

The Senate proposed raising penalties on employers who do not verify workers' legal status through an electronic database. The fine for the first offense would range from $500 to $4,000, up from the current fine of $100. The program would apply to new hires, but not current employees, and would not begin until 18 months after $400 million in funding is allocated.

During a recent speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Bush acknowledged the need for a reliable verification system.

"Business owners should not have to act as detectives to verify the legal status of their workers. And so the federal government has the responsibility to ensure that businesses have a clear and reliable way to check work documents. We have that responsibility," Bush said.

The president's alliance with business interests angers social conservatives, who blame the administration for failing to enforce current immigration laws and allowing businesses to be the magnets that draw hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to the U.S. each year.

Despite recent crackdowns on illegal immigrant hiring, Republican conservatives point to reduced enforcement in recent years. In fiscal 2004, three notices to employers for hiring illegal workers were filed, down from 417 in 1999.

Instead, conservatives favor the House bill, which calls for stiffer employer sanctions, ranging from $5,000 to $7,500 for the first offense. Under the House measure, employers would have two years to begin verifying Social Security numbers of new hires, and have six years to verify the status of existing workers.

The House did not include a legalization process for current illegal immigrants or future immigrant workers.

"The Chamber of Commerce has adamantly opposed checking out existing employees," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who will lead the House in final bill negotiations with the Senate.

"If we don't check out the existing employees, then an illegal immigrant currently in the country cannot change jobs, because if they move jobs, they'd get checked out, and they would get caught. And that establishes a de facto program of indentured servitude for people who are illegally in the country in their existing jobs."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also has complained that under the Senate bill, employers would not be prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants until the federal government certifies that the electronic system is 99 percent accurate. If a worker is wrongly fired, the worker could sue the government for lost wages.

"This is the linchpin of this bill. If we don't get this right, we might as well pitch it in," Cornyn said recently. He added it could take years to get a system that is 99 percent accurate.

But one business lobbyist noted the current test program has a high error rate, and that is what makes business owners nervous.

"We have to have error rates that are reasonable," said John Gay, senior vice president of the National Restaurant Association. The business lobby wants the verification program phased in as certain benchmarks for accuracy are reached.

Under the House plan, employers would have to verify at least 144 million workers nationwide.

"The penalty is on us, and there's no out for us in the House bill," Gay said. "It's a workability issue, and that's a big issue."

gebe.martinez@chron.com

This is such a RED HERRING....

I can get a world class background check done on someone for $129.00 using an online form...it gives me their debts, their addresses for the past ten years, a credit report, and depending on the service used, a criminal background check. So, let's be generous and say it costs a company $150 bucks to do a background check on a potential employee...seems to me, that is CHEAP INSURANCE to make sure you are not hiring someone who is breaking numerous laws, is guilty of several crimes including document fraud.

But what is causing heartburn to business owners in Houston and nationwide is a pending immigration bill they fear could place too much burden on them to enforce laws against hiring illegal immigrants

Well not much different than holding a bartender responsible for that 1 beer too many......or the cashier that sells cigarettes to someone who was set in as a set up. Or the cashier who gives a refund to someone who gave phony info. We're all stuck "policing". Sorry some of the burden gets passed to the higher ups. There's zero tolerence for asprins in your backpack at highschool. None of us are given an acceptible room for error. And many are left with a record to have to contend with for the rest of their lives too. Sucks. But hey.....these guys are the ones who wrote the rules to begin with. Tough when they are set to the same lofty expectations.

Employers make employees sign document that state grounds for termination. They are more than happy to can you if you steal from them but don't care one iota if you have the right to work in this country or not. They have taken a page out of the federal governments playbook; Enforce only the laws you want to. Why should they be allowed to enforce one law when breaking it impacts them and not enforce another law because doing so would impact them?

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