Old immigrant ID law being enforced

Web Posted: 11/09/2007 11:13 PM CST

Hernán Rozemberg
Express-News

Still looking for ways to ramp up national security, the government quietly put into effect this week a portion of a law passed 11 years ago to curtail illegal immigration.
The change means employers no longer can accept some documents, such as citizenship certificates and old permanent residency cards, to verify the work eligibility of future hires.

San Antonio restaurateur David Cortez said the new requirement likely will make it harder for him to fill jobs that linger vacant.

"I don't know why they're bringing this up now," said Cortez, who employs about 550 people at his three restaurants, Mi Tierra, La Margarita and Pico de Gallo. "Anything that makes things more restrictive only makes my life more difficult."

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was supposed to have made the change more than a decade ago, after Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, authored by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.

And though proper bureaucratic steps were taken to amend the list of allowed documents, the agency — then the Immigration and Naturalization Service — never made the changes on the I-9 forms, the standard employment verification document everybody has had to fill out.

Now the government has caught up with the change as it continues to battle document fraud, the method used by countless undocumented immigrants to get hired.

Five documents previously accepted, including citizenship or naturalization certificates and old "green cards" or permanent residency cards that are no longer made, have been most prone to tampering, said MarÃ*a GarcÃ*a-Upson, a CIS spokeswoman in Dallas.

The change took too long, said Smith, who has witnessed several portions of his 1996 law dusted off as part of the government's post-9-11 push to increase security.

"I'm disappointed that it has taken over a decade for an administration of either party to take seriously this important tool enacted by Congress," Smith said.

Placing the rule on a fast-track process, CIS implemented the change immediately, without the typical public comment period.

But employers will be given a month-long grace period before they can be punished for violating the law, which only applies to hires made after Nov. 7.

GarcÃ*a-Upson said she didn't expect the change to wreak much havoc. New citizens tend to prefer using a passport rather than their certificates, she said, adding that other documents barred from the list are not commonly used.

Holders of the discontinued green cards, estimated at around 750,000 nationally, are mostly older immigrants living in border communities.

They already should be aware from a previous announcement that they'll have to get the new, high-tech versions, GarcÃ*a-Upson said.

Even Cortez, the veteran restaurant owner, acknowledged that most immigrant applicants typically show current green cards, a driver's license and Social Security cards. Once in a while he sees citizenship certificates, he said.

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