Thread: Editorial: Probe points to need for immigration fix

Editorial: Probe points to need for immigration fix
August 11, 2008

President Bush made comprehensive immigration reform one of his top domestic priorities in 2007. Yet the 800-page bill, one of the biggest overhauls proposed in years, died a quiet death in Congress last fall. It'll likely be 2009 -- in other words, well past this year's election season -- before it comes back up for discussion again.

And so, immigration reform gets added to the troubling list of key national issues (Medicare reform, looming Social Security shortfalls, the federal deficit) on which Congress has chosen to punt instead of lead. This weekend brought a reminder that there's a cost that comes with congressional inaction on a high-priority issue like immigration reform: The nation's businesses and workforce must limp along in a broken system that serves neither very well.

On Sunday, Star Tribune reporter James Walsh detailed a federal investigation against the high-profile owner of the Twin Cities-based Olen Staff Co. Doris Ruiz and her husband have not been charged with a crime. But according to the search warrant affidavit, the firm allegedly placed illegal immigrants with a number of regional businesses, provided false documentation and did not pay taxes for Ruiz or the workers for several years.

The investigation highlights growing concerns across the nation about staffing agencies specializing in immigrant workforces. It's a growth industry. Faced with the nation's bramblebush of immigration laws, small companies in particular are turning over the task of checking workers' documentation to outside contractors. Immigration officials say that practice leads some firms to wrongly conclude that they can walk away from their responsibility to review documentation. It's also led to increased reports of staffing agencies supplying illegal workers. There are no firm numbers, but there have been high-profile investigations of these agencies in Chicago and Memphis.

The reforms considered by Congress were far from perfect. But they would have tightened border security, bolstered worker verification programs and dealt with the millions of illegal immigrants already here and working. President Bush was right to make reform a priority. Inaction by his successor and congressional leaders is not an option.

© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/edit ... c:_Yyc:aUU

In this NC city, in a small commercial complex of cute little, well-kept cottages there is a hairdresser, a remodeling company that each rent their own building. And then there is the consulate of Nicaragua sharing office space with a staffing agency (the habla Espanol kind.)
The buildings are about 800 sq.ft. at most and the hair salon owner is a bit worried about the folks hanging out in the parking lot.