Thread: MO: Plan targeting illegal immigration drops housing...

Posted on Wed, Mar. 14, 2007
Plan targeting illegal immigration drops housing restrictions

CHRIS BLANK
Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Senators outlined a slimmed-down immigration bill Wednesday that removes restrictions on leasing to illegal immigrants and requires fewer Missouri businesses to enroll in a federal program to check immigration status.

The measure, sponsored by Sens. Chris Koster, R-Harrisonville, and Tim Green, D-St. Louis, initially would have required all Missouri businesses to enroll in the federal Basic Pilot program to verify work eligibility.

As revised, the mandate would now be phased in and would exempt businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

The restriction on leasing to illegal immigrants was stripped after a state judge earlier this week declared unconstitutional a city ordinance in the St. Louis suburb of Valley Park that made it illegal for landlords to rent to people not legally in the United States.

Koster said by pulling the leasing restrictions, all the bill's provisions have been tested in the courts.

The bill, designed to encapsulate most immigration measures being tried in other states, also would require law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of those who are arrested. Illegal immigrants would be barred from receiving state social service benefits and enrolling in state colleges and universities.

The Senate Pensions, Veterans' Affairs and General Laws Committee heard testimony on the revised bill Wednesday. It also considered a separate measure - already passed by the House - that includes only the college enrollment provision.

Dave Wilson, a Kansas City union organizer, said many construction contractors have turned to hiring illegal immigrants to save money, which hurts both the American workers and illegal immigrants.

"There is a second class of noncitizens that can work but can't vote," he said. "They're tolerated by employers because they can cheat them, pay them poor wages and abuse them."

The bill would require that beginning in January, all newly hired state and local government employees would need to be verified by the program. All state contractors and businesses with at least 30 workers would need to begin using the checks by 2009, and any business with at least 10 employees would be required to use it in 2010.

An employer can check the status of potential employees only after a job has been offered but before the worker has been hired.

Koster said the checks are accurate most of the time, are returned within seconds and are a better way for employers to check immigration status than to try to scrutinize documents.

The Basic Pilot program, created in 1997, uses existing federal databases to determine work eligibility.

Georgia and Colorado already require state contractors to enroll in Basic Pilot, and several other states are considering bills to require some businesses to use it.

But critics, which include immigration and business groups, say searches through the Basic Pilot program are often inaccurate, especially for people not from the United States or who have recently changed their last names.

A 2005 study by the Governmental Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, found that many of the problems exist because the search relies on lists maintained by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. Some of the lists contain errors, with last names recorded as middle names and misspellings. Furthermore, the records are often dated and slow to reflect changes in immigration status that permit a foreign worker to get a job in the United States.

Mike Hoey, the assistant director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, said the legislation could have unintended consequences.

"It's true that some of these people are breaking the law, but it's also true that you're sweeping into this children who have been here most of their lives and people who are just trying to survive," Hoey said.

---_

On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov

http://www.belleville.com/mld/bellevill ... 904034.htm

the mandate would now be phased in and would exempt businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

So retain 10 individual "contractors" (coyotes) to hire a slave force of 90 without bothering to "check immigration status". Perfect---the State of Misery strikes again....