Thread: CA: Contractors To Check Employees' Immigration Status

This is California!!! There's hope yet. I know this area well and I'm so proud of them.
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Mar 19, 2007 9:45 pm US/Pacific

Contractors To Check Employees' Immigration Status

(CBS) MISSION VIEJO, Calif. The Mission Viejo City Council Monday cleared the way for the city to become the first in the state to require city contractors to verify their employees' immigration status as a condition of doing business.

The ordinance, proposed by City Councilman Paul Ledesma, was unanimously approved on a first vote earlier this month and also received its final nod Monday night with all five members in agreement.

The ordinance, which has the backing of the Mission Viejo Chamber of Commerce, will take effect in July.

"I'm quite happy," Ledesma said after the vote. Under the ordinance, contractors would have to participate in the Department of Homeland Security's Basic Pilot system, a free Internet service telling employers if an applicant is eligible to work in the U.S.

It also requires the city to check the immigration status of its employees. The city of 98,000 people, which employs 107, uses contractors for landscaping, trash removal and street sweeping. The City Council last year approved about 50 contracts.

Ledesma proposed the ordinance after hearing about the Department of Homeland Security system from a resident.

"I felt compelled not to ignore it," Ledesma said, who is running for the vacant 71st Assembly District seat in a June special election.

After the ordinance takes effect, contractors who do not participate in the program would lose their city contracts.

Of the five people who addressed the issue at the council meeting, one asked questions about it, one was opposed and three were in favor, Ledesma said.

Resident Julie Dove earlier said that the program could have a big effect on labor.

"A lot of these people are extremely skilled workers and this is a trade that they learned," Dove said. "So this is going to do a lot of harm to their business because they're going to lose trained people because they can't prove that they can be here."

The ordinance will not affect projects now in the works, but only those negotiated after July.

Worker Zanaido Quezada, who has held his job since January, said that the law is a good idea, adding that those here illegally might never be discovered without the law.

Some Orange County Latinos have said they are concerned about the use of a government database for checking immigration status, contending that it's outdated and has flagged legal workers. They also maintain that the system encourages racial profiling.

"It's bad for business," Ana Maria Patino, a Laguna Beach activist told the Los Angeles Times. "It's bad for the economy of the United States. We need to figure out that we need these immigrants to keep the economy going."

Mission Viejo's vote will start a national trend, according to a representative of a group opposed to illegal immigration.
"These things will soon spring up all across the country," Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Times. "Local governments are tired of the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration.

"Local governments can't deport anyone, but what they can do is regulate businesses that serve as a magnet for illegal immigrants."

Ledesma said he was "a little surprised" the proposal has "been co-opted as an anti-illegal immigration measure."

"This is just a provision in our contracts to make sure people working for our contractors have the legal right to do so," Ledesma said. "It's like applying for a job that you need a college degree for. After the interview, the employer is going to check to see if you have one. This is just upholding federal law."

Sharon Rummery, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said about 15,000 employers nationally use the Basic Pilot program.

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_079010223.html

It's bad for business," Ana Maria Patino, a Laguna Beach activist told the Los Angeles Times. "It's bad for the economy of the United States. We need to figure out that we need these immigrants to keep the economy going."

Well Ana, like all pro illegal supporters, you have your facts mixed up. The economy IS NOT going to crash if we don't use immigrants. Its been proven over and over again that illegals hurt the economy more than they contribute to it.
What we need to figure out is how to get more Americans employed!