Thread: Immigrants aren't the only 'illegals'

www.jdnews.com

September 04,2005

Immigrants aren't the only 'illegals'

Illegal immigrants are not coming to North Carolina to vacation at the Outer Banks or to climb Mount Mitchell. The state is swamped with illegal immigrants because they are able to find work here.

It follows that someone is employing people who are not authorized to work in the United States. Those "someones" are all around us.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say at least half of the 330,000 illegal immigrants in the Carolinas - the heads of household and older children, presumably - are able to find jobs here.

So half the scandal of people being in the country illegally is that employers are illegally employing them.

There oughta be a law.

But, of course, there is. It is against the law to employ an undocumented alien.

People hire them anyway for a variety of reasons. The illegal employees will work menial jobs. They will work cheap.

They don't complain when safety and health benefits are minimized.

It is true that employers are reluctant to challenge an immigrant's legality because it can open them up to an Equal Employment Opportunity lawsuit.

That said, there also is a tendency among employers to turn a blind eye to such matters.

A problem exists on the enforcement side, too, however. A report last week out of Charlotte showed that not a single North Carolina employer was fined in the last two years for employing illegal immigrants. That seems to be the rule across the nation.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick has had enough of this lax enforcement. She recommends that Congress raise the employer fine to $10,000 from $250, with the money going to beef up the staff of immigration authorities.

If that seems like overkill, well, it probably is. After all, we are talking about people who only want to harvest their vegetable crop or serve their hamburgers or clean their motel rooms, nothing more nefarious than that.

Yet in hiring people whose credentials are suspect, these employers undercut the pay scales of rival employers. They also encourage the very immigration that needs discouraging.

Most relevant of all is that they increase the furtive traffic across our borders in which people of more murderous intent - terrorists - can easily enter our country. For love of profits, our security is compromised.

When you look at it that way, $10,000 might be too low a fine.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick has had enough of this lax enforcement. She recommends that Congress raise the employer fine to $10,000 from $250, with the money going to beef up the staff of immigration authorities.

Well, I think it should be that all there assets are taking and giving to our Citizens that are suffering in the South.
Take this employers Big nice Homes, and give it to one of our Citizens that is suffering. Put this employers in the Astro dome To live.

If you look at it in whole, these employers are ripping the American people off, even more then the crooks at Enron.

The one thing I can say about China. A few years ago, when the CFO of Air China, was charged and found guilty of embezzlement of 1 million dollars. He didn't just spend a few mouths in Jail. They took him out in the Stadium and executed him after he lost his appeal.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick has had enough of this lax enforcement. She recommends that Congress raise the employer fine to $10,000 from $250, with the money going to beef up the staff of immigration authorities.

I agree. Audit companies that have a high number employee Social Security numbers that do not match with the information on file. Require recertification of employees. Require that new employees have SSN numbers verified before working. Change the Equal Opportunity law to require that a prospective employee prove they are in the country legally before even applying for work. Fine non complying companies heavily.