Thread: Obama Revives Bush Idea to Catch Illegal Workers

JULY 9, 2009

U.S. Targets Contractors Hiring Illegals

By CAM SIMPSON

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Wednesday it would implement a Bush-era program targeting federal contractors that hire illegal immigrants.

The program, which is unpopular in the business community, will cut across all sectors of the economy, affecting about 170,000 companies, from health care to construction to weapons makers, as well as many other industries that receive government business or federal stimulus funds.

The program requires that companies check whether employees are entitled to work in the U.S. through the government's E-Verify system, which compares names and Social Security numbers with a government database.

Targeted companies range from prime contractors with more than $100,000 in annual government business to subcontractors earning more than $3,000 in taxpayer money.

The program, which goes into effect Sept. 8, is a favorite of those who favor strong enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.

Republican senators moved Wednesday to make the program permanent by law, removing any White House discretion to end it. The GOP won approval for an amendment to the budget bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the program. The bill could go to a final vote later this week, but will have to be reconciled with the House version.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the government in December to halt the program, calling it unlawful. That litigation, pending in a Maryland federal court, is likely to move forward now that the Obama administration has embraced the program.

Companies doing work for the government will be required to enter the names of new hires into the E-Verify system. Employers will initially also have to check the status of current employees, creating a potentially significant burden, said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council, a major trade and lobbying group for government contractors. He said contractors were concerned they would be required to take responsibility for compliance by subcontractors.

If workers are found to be in the U.S. illegally, contractors are supposed to fire them.

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the administration and Senate actions Wednesday, calling the electronic system highly flawed and riddled with incorrect data.

The Obama administration also said Wednesday it would end a similar program that is unpopular with the business community: the so-called no-match program operated by the Social Security Administration.

The agency is supposed to help enforce immigration laws by targeting companies with employees whose names and Social Security numbers don't match their W-2 earning reports. But as a result of a court order, that program has never been implemented. The ACLU and several other groups sued to block it.

The Obama administration's action coincides with a series of recent moves that put more responsibility on employers for hiring legal workers.

Write to Cam Simpson at cam.simpson@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1247065 ... lenews_wsj

The program, which goes into effect Sept. 8,

How much do you want to bet Sept. 8th will also be the day they introduce amnesty in the Senate?

They will say "look we are enforcing the laws, so give all the poor hard working "immigrants" green cards".

Thanks for that update Tex2.

If anything, this is a terrorist/spy hunt and not an illegal alien hunt.

Big defense contractors screen their employees before hiring them. Like someone said, you're not going to find a bunch of illegal aliens working at Lockheed Martin.

Abandoning the no-match letters allows illegal aliens to keep their jobs, which is another policy amnesty.

They no-matched American Apperal and got screamed at by the OBLs. I still think that was a political target.

Dixie

Your typical "Obama/Napolitano speaking out of both sides of their collective head" tactic to make you think they are doing something. Only a smoke screen. I think it's funny how people in politics talk about the problems in a system that causes it not to work and instead of correcting the problems they submit another approach that not only creates more problems in the original system but a whole new system with problems.

Our government is like a bunch of emergency room techs that can't figure out the patient is bleeding profusely and they keep using a band aid to try and stop it. And, if you check their credentials, none of them have any hospital experience.

Build our NUMBERS, daily

Quote:

Call Senators Now Asking for a YES vote on Grassley's E-Verify
Amendment - 202-224-3121

Updated Thursday, July 9, 2009, 11:18 AM

Call Senators Now Asking for a YES vote on Grassley's E-Verify Amendment & VITTER'S NO-MATCH AMENDMENT - 202-224-3121

The Senate resumed voting on amendments this morning and APPROVED DAVID VITTER'S NO-MATCH BY A VOICE VOTE. It is not known when the amendment by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) will come up.

Before adjourning last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed a cloture motion to end debate on the overall bill by Friday. Please call Senators and ask them to vote YES on the Grassley amendment - 202-224-3121.

Sen. Grassley's amendment (#1415) would allow employers using E-Verify to check the workplace eligibility of all employees, not just new hires.

Under current law, E-Verify may only be used for new hires. Sen. Vitter's amendment (#1375) would prevent further delays in the implementation of the "no-match" rule, which allows the Social Security Administration to send letters notifying employers that the Social Security number and personal data of certain employees don't match SSA records (almost always because they are illegal aliens).

Victory on Sen. Sessions' E-Verify Amendment!

Yesterday, Senators passed Sen. Jeff Sessions' (R-Ala.) E-Verify amendment by voice vote after failing to table it. The vote on the motion to table the amendment failed by a 44-53 margin. The Sessions' amendment would require federal contractors to use E-Verify and permanently reauthorize the workplace verification tool, which is set to expire this fall.

Victory on Sen. DeMint's Border Fence Amendment!
After votes on the Sessions amendment, Senators adopted (54-44) an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that would require the completion of at least 700 miles of reinforced fencing along the Southwestern border by December 31, 2010.


Thank you for helping to make these terrific wins a reality!
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/news/ ... -amendment

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-162423-vit ... +amendment

Does anyone know how this will work? Will it reverse Napolitano's order to rescind the "No Match letter" order and require that the Obama Administration continue to pursue this in court? Evidently we also must be watchful that any and/all of these amendments passed by the Senate are not taken out in the Conference Committee with the House because none of them is included in the House version of the bill.

Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, sponsored the amendment that would stop the department's (DHS) plan to dump the so-called "no-match" rule.

DHS appropriations bill S 1298 but it could be stripped out by the House/Senate joint committee, since the House version H.R.2892 does not include the provision.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-162490.html

Dixie

Looks like congress is rapidly responding to Obama's Boondoggle.

Dixie

Thank you, Dixie!

I think that none of these new provisions -
Sessions' E-Verify amendment
DeMint's Border Fence amendment
Vitter's No-Match Letter amendment

[or
Grassley's amendment to extend required use of E-Verify by federal contractors to ALL hires, not just new hires (not yet voted on).]

are a part of the DHS House bill, and could be removed in the Conference Committee between the House and Senate if not watched and supported.