Thread: Business leaders seek protection against potentially harmful

Hopefully this is not a duplicate. I did search. If it is please delete


Business leaders seek protection against potentially harmful immigration reform bills



Maria St. Louis-Sanchez, (Bio) msanchez@greeleytribune.com
January 4, 2007


LOVELAND--Northern Colorado business leaders plan to defend themselves in the Colorado Legislature against immigration reform bills that could make it hard to conduct business.

"We are very concerned about the employer being placed in a position of policement," said Sandra Hagen Solin, issues manager for the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance. The alliance is the lobbying arm for the Greeley, Loveland and Fort Collins chambers of commerce.

Immigration reform was part of a seven-item priority agenda set by the alliance and presented at a Thursday morning meeting in Loveland. In attendance were members of the northern Colorado business community and six northern Colorado lawmakers.

Also on the Alliance's priority list were job creation, transportation, work force preparedness, fiscal restructuring, health care and water.

In terms of immigration reform, some of the alliance's goals this year include: Expand the federal temporary visa program for essential workers, recruiting more employees to make up for the loss that immigration reform has created and ensuring that there are cost-effective systems in place for employers to verify the citizenship status of employees.

Hagen Solin said it is important for employers to be able to tell if their potential employees are in the United States illegally. The much-touted federal Basic Pilot Program, which intends to warn employers if their employees are illegal, has recently exhibited flaws, she said.

"We've found out recently that it isn't fool-proof," she said.

Although Greeley meat producer Swift & Co. voluntarily used the program, the Dec. 12 raid by federal immigration officials showed the program did not keep Swift from hiring illegal immigrants. Also, the program did not defend the company in cases where identity theft occurred and workers had a real Social Security number.
Also important will be ensuring that immigration reform doesn't keep employers from having enough employees, said Rep.-elect Don Marostica of Loveland.

"We do not have enough workers," he said, adding that the construction, agricultural and tourism industries are short 50,000 workers in Colorado.

He would be in favor of a federal guest program where employees could legally come to the U.S. to work and then go home.

Sen.-elect Scott Renfroe, R.-Greeley, said when it comes to immigration reform, the country needs to enforce the laws that it has and to ensure that businesses keep from hiring illegal workers.

"We need to give them the tools to do that," he said.


http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/2 ... 8132724446

"We do not have enough workers," he said, adding that the construction, agricultural and tourism industries are short 50,000 workers in Colorado

Oh please...just pay a living wage...to the legal citizens *poof* problem solved...simple if you build it they will come...

The Japanese are planning 8 Toyota factories...here in the Southern US...they must believe there are workers here...unless they are waiting for Amnesty too

The much-touted federal Basic Pilot Program, which intends to warn employers if their employees are illegal, has recently exhibited flaws, she said.
"We've found out recently that it isn't fool-proof," she said.
Although Greeley meat producer Swift & Co. voluntarily used the program, the Dec. 12 raid by federal immigration officials showed the program did not keep Swift from hiring illegal immigrants. Also, the program did not defend the company in cases where identity theft occurred and workers had a real Social Security number.

Personally, I think that the the "not fool proof" part of the Basic Pilot Program" is that the employers either do not use it like they say they do or they could care less what they find out on the system. I am not buying any of their BOOHOO OR I did not know bull!