Thread: For employers, cost to be high for illegal hires

For employers, cost to be high for illegal hires
Congress blamed for failure to act

By Antonio Olivo and Stephen Franklin | Tribune staff reporters
August 11, 2007

The news of a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration Friday was delivered by Bush administration officials with a verbal finger wag, a warning carried out after Congress' failure this summer to pass legislation that would have also included more lenient reforms.

Starting as early as next month, employers wouldface tougher sanctions for hiring illegal workers, federal contractors would have to use special software to confirm employee identities and plans for beefing up the U.S.-Mexico border with more fencing and Border Patrol officers would kick into gear—the best measures available under existing immigration law, officials said during a Washington news conference.

As conservatives gave cautious praise to the moves while unions, business groups and immigrant advocates predicted massive layoffs and other heartaches, both sides wondered whether the vise on the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants is intentionally being tightened to make more friendly measures easier to pass when Congress returns from its summer recess.

Amnesty effort?
"If they're trying to make another effort at amnesty in the fall, then this is a pretty smart thing they're doing," said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, a Virginia-based organization that helped engineer a fierce grass-roots campaign in June to defeat a bipartisan Senate bill that would have offered legalization to undocumented immigrants.

"Perhaps they're trying to build their credibility" among conservatives "and swing a few votes over their way," Beck said. "But, we'll take the good moves for the wrong purposes."

Administration officials put the burden on Congress for any negative effects produced by some two dozen provisions laid out Friday, several of which are already being carried out.

"Our hope is that key elements of the Senate bill will see the light of day some day, but until Congress chooses to act, we are going to be taking some energetic steps of our own," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

But, with no guarantees for softer reforms, the tougher enforcement measures sparked outrage among business groups, immigrant advocates and unions.

"Now all the cowardly politicians and no-amnesty Minutemen can watch crying children and families being ripped apart and businesses being disrupted for the next six months and the rest of us can look back and say: Is this the America we really want?" said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, an umbrella group for immigrant advocates.

Their main concern lies in new regulations for employers who receive "no-match letters" — notices that say a worker's stated Social Security number doesn't match the name in government records.

Under the new rule, employers would have three months to clarify the discrepancies, which can be due to clerical errors, name changes or stolen identities. Failing to meet that timeline, they would have to fire workers in question or face the possibility of a fine of as much as $11,000 per illegal employee, officials said.

The new requirements could cripple some industries that rely on low-wage immigrant labor, legal and illegal, critics said. Coming on the heels of stepped-up workplace raids around the country, it could move some businesses to panic and fire workers whose no-match letters are due to innocent mistakes, they said.

"There is a risk that they will drive people deeper into the underground economy," said Bo Cooper, a former top official at Homeland Security who now represents businesses in immigration cases for the Paul Hastings law firm in Washington.

Others said the increased workload could overwhelm the staff at the Social Security Administration, which sends out no-match letters.


Fear of 'flood'
Appeals and a more aggressive push to use the letters as a form of enforcement could flood the process with too much bureaucracy, said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

But Mark Hinkle, spokesman for the Social Security Administration, said the new rules would not significantly affect agency workload.

Others questioned a provision requiring the more than 200,000 companies that enter into federal contracts with the government to use its new electronic verification system, called E-Verify, to confirm a potential employee's legal status.

"The last statistics I saw from DHS showed a 92 percent accuracy rate," said Randy Johnson, an official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "That means there is still … inaccuracy."

Amid a chorus of other complaints about the measures—from farmers predicting efforts to streamline an agricultural guest-worker program would flop to Democratic congressional leaders decrying enforcement without legalization—Beck at NumbersUSA remained skeptical.

The administration has promised to enforce several of those measures for years, Beck said, vowing his group would renew its pressure for even more enforcement.

"Based on their track record? Sorry, we don't trust them," he said.

aolivo@tribune.com

sfranklin@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... b01_layout

Only time will tell what the latest scam is. I bet it has something to do with Arlen Specter and bush boy cuddling up on Air Force 1.

I notice the use of the word failure in the first paragraph.
Was this from the news or the editorial page?

As conservatives gave cautious praise to the moves while unions, business groups and immigrant advocates predicted massive layoffs and other heartaches

I suppose this is human nature but it is always shocking. When one takes a privilege that he is not due,but it goes unchallenged for a period of time, it becomes his 'right.' These employers were violating the law from the day they hired the first illegal, and that violation has compounded until this day. Now that there is a threat to enforce the law they are protesting as though their civil rights are being violated. None of them have talked about how much profit they have made by using illegal labor.

Yes the cost will be high for THEM. Now they will have to do what all other legal businesses do, HIRE LEGAL CITIZENS. Jail time seems to be more in order for this criminal employers of illiterates.

"There is a risk that they will drive people deeper into the underground economy," said Bo Cooper, a former top official at Homeland Security who now represents businesses in immigration cases for the Paul Hastings law firm in Washington.

Talk about lack of ethics in our government.This Should NOT Be Allowed !!!!!!!!!!!My point here is A former Employee of DHS is working against us and so many former Gov. employees are doing this.It means they could be corrupt when supposedly working for us since so many go to the dark side after leaving Gov.

They can only go underground for so long, when the jobs dry up they are going to have little choice but to go back to their home country.

This will work, just do it and ignore all the whinning and crying, we wll not be the ones breaking up family's, they are breaking up their own family's by not leaveing all together while they have a chance!! Can't wait to see the difference it makes on the schools!


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