Thread: Immigration rules are tough, but not smart

Immigration Lawyers Asociation Alert! Disclaimer: The following viewpoint is not held by 80% of American citizens:

Immigration rules are tough, but not smart
Posted on August 24, 2007 5:12 AM
http://www.biztimes.com/blogs/milwaukee ... -not-smart

By Erich Straub

Recently the federal government took a half-step on immigration while taking a giant step toward harming Wisconsin’s and our nation’s economy. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced new Social Security No-Match regulations which, for the first time, force employers to fire workers who can’t resolve employment verification issues within 90 days. With this announcement, the Bush Administration appears to have abandoned further attempts to reform the nation’s broken immigration system in favor of an enforcement-only approach.

Enforcement is essential to the integrity of our nation’s immigration system, but enforcement must be smart, not just tough. Is it smart to gamble with the health of our economy by worsening worker shortages in Wisconsin and the rest of the country in key industries such as meat packing, construction and health care? Is it smart, when immigrants make up 70% of the agricultural workforce, to tie the hands of our farmers just as harvest is approaching? Is it smart, when the vast majority of Americans support comprehensive immigration reform, to take half-measures that could raise prices and lower the standard of living for all Americans?

These are the likely effects of the new regulations. Wisconsin employers, including small businesses and farmers, could face criminal prosecution, heavy fines and discrimination claims for failing to fire these workers or resolving these issues to the government’s satisfaction.

To make matters worse, the government offers no carrot to go with the stick. Businesses will face new regulations and increased liability without the tools needed to quickly and accurately verify worker eligibility. An internal audit of the Social Security Verification Pilot Program indicated a 4% error rate, which translates to 18 million people being incorrectly identified as being ineligible to work. Not surprisingly, only a small percentage of businesses now use the program. A measure to properly fund and improve the system died with immigration reform this summer, and in its recent announcement, DHS offered no credible explanation as to how it will achieve such a vast expansion of the flawed program.

Assuming that DHS can wave a magic wand and make the verification system work, it is unlikely to achieve its stated purpose of ensuring that those that work in this country have the legal authority to do so. Under the present system, most undocumented immigrants work “on the books.â€

...and which big businesses do these people represent?

The only real solution to this crisis is a complete solution – comprehensive immigration reform.

TRANSLATION: The federal government has not done it's job preventing illegal immigration the last 20 years so we now have 20 - 30 million illegals here. Therefore, to get the feds out of their mess, we support amnesty so that by making them legal, the problem of illegality magically goes away. And, as Immigration Lawyers, we see this as an unprecedented opportunity to gather huge sums of money to aid illegals into their legal transformation. Whenever we say "comprehensive immigration reform", that is really the code word for amnesty. And we are only more than happy in promoting amnesty evrywhere we go.