Thread: Shifting Immigration Enforcement to Employers

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/lo ... ness-front

Shift immigration enforcement focus from borders to employers, activists urge

By Ruth Morris
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 30 2007

J.R. Mencarelli has two challenging jobs to fill: late shifts, at $9.50-an-hour, as a machine operator.

He says it might be easier to hire undocumented workers for the posts. So why is he voluntarily participating in a federal program to carefully verify job applicants are authorized to work in the United States?

"We don't want to get in trouble; we want to do the right thing. We're here for the long haul," said Mencarelli, human resources manager at Doormark Inc., a cabinetmaker in Deerfield Beach.

As Congress again prepares to debate changing the nation's immigration system, some lobbyists and activists hope to require all employers to confirm their workers' immigration status like Mencarelli does, using the government's Basic Pilot program. Introduced 10 years ago, the Internet-based system allows bosses to quickly check a worker's identity against a federal database. For now, the program is voluntary, and only a small percentage of businesses use it.

Expanding employer verification could have a big impact on Florida, where large swaths of the economy -- tourism, agriculture and sectors of the construction industry -- rely on a low-wage, flexible labor force. Some activists complain these sectors have become addicted to a compliant, undocumented labor force, and they say cutting off the demand for workers is easier than cutting off the supply.

A House bill introduced last year would have required all employers to verify the immigration status of new hires and provided $400 million over five years to improve Basic Pilot. But the provision stalled when House and Senate leaders could not reach a compromise on competing immigration proposals.

"That's a huge bargain in terms of immigration law enforcement when you look at what we're spending on high-tech unmanned fences and aerial drones [at the Mexican border]," said Jessica Vaughan, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports stricter controls on immigration.

President Bush weighed in during his State of the Union address last week, saying the government would "give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers, so there's no excuse left for violating the law." The Society for Human Resource Management responded that the current system was "inefficient and inadequate at preventing fraud."

The prospect of mandatory verification also has played to mixed reviews in fruit and vegetable fields and on building projects where many of South Florida's undocumented workers find employment. Farmers, for example, largely support a guest worker plan to broaden the pool of legal workers. But they argue it would be folly to crack down on employers without first offering a solution to their labor needs.

"The grocery shelves would be empty if these workers were not here to harvest," said corn farmer Ann Holt, of Wellington. Last year she and her husband lost part of their Belle Glade crop because they could not find enough workers to pick it at $9 to $10 an hour, she said.

Critics say current law turns a blind eye to employers who hire undocumented workers. Employers must ask to see at least one form of identification that appears valid, but they don't have to vouch for the documents' authenticity. The system amounts to a kind of "don't ask, don't tell" policy, where bosses can only get in trouble if they knowingly hire people living here illegally.

"I don't make them take an oath or anything," said a Palm Beach County nursery owner who requested anonymity for fear he might invite scrutiny by immigration authorities. "If they give me a false form, I don't know that."

Employers and analysts took notice in December when immigration agents raided six plants run by the Swift & Co. meat-processing company in several states, including Texas and Utah. The company was participating in the Basic Pilot program and its senior vice president, Jack Shandley, had complained to a congressional committee that the program did not detect duplicate records, such as two employees using the same Social Security number. Other employers have said the system trips up on small spelling variations and hyphenated names. A Swift spokesman noted that all 1,300 employees netted in the sweep had cleared the Basic Pilot verification program.

"This is an example of the Department of Homeland Security walking a very fine political line," said Gordon Hanson, professor of economics at the University of California in San Diego. After focusing on border security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said, authorities now find themselves under renewed political pressure to beef up work-site enforcement. At the same time, business groups carefully push for continued access to low-skilled labor.

A vast trade in fraudulent documents, meanwhile, has made verification a trickier business. While both houses of Congress passed legislation last year that would mandate employee checks, Hanson estimated authorities would need at least five years to bring Basic Pilot up to speed with employers' needs.

Employers and analysts took notice in December when immigration agents raided six plants run by the Swift & Co. meat-processing company in several states, including Texas and Utah. The company was participating in the Basic Pilot program and its senior vice president, Jack Shandley, had complained to a congressional committee that the program did not detect duplicate records, such as two employees using the same Social Security number. Other employers have said the system trips up on small spelling variations and hyphenated names. A Swift spokesman noted that all 1,300 employees netted in the sweep had cleared the Basic Pilot verification program

I bet it did...and can you just imagine ...it they same thing happened it they were hiring Doctors and Nurses...OOOPPPPSSSSS sorry!

"The grocery shelves would be empty if these workers were not here to harvest," said corn farmer Ann Holt, of Wellington. Last year she and her husband lost part of their Belle Glade crop because they could not find enough workers to pick it at $9 to $10 an hour, she said.

Hire legally and you will have no problem! If you have to pay a few more dollars for legal workers so be it!

We're sick of picking up the social, criminal and medical costs to keep your jobs filled!!![/quote]

enough workers to pick it at $9 to $10 an hour, she said.

I don't freaking believe that for a minute...and most of the illegal are not working in FREAKING AGRICULTURE....plus we have a temporary workers for this and always have...SO FOLKS please stop your crap propaganda...we do not have enough fruit and veggies to pick for 12 million Illegals... come on...for god sakes!!!!!!!

The border enforcement has not been done. DHS is just looking at a way that they can blame someone for their failure.

I think it is an idea that is long over due. All you have to do is look at the numbers and you will see that ICE can't deal with it alone. Currently in South Florida ICE is being assisted by Border Patrol. This takes Border Patrol off their jobs and then the Coast Guard has 8 boats grounded due to safety issues. In Miami Dade County alone there is an estimated 825,000 illegals. You would need at least half of the ICE agents in the United States to deal with that. Therefore we must look to employers as well. If there are no employers than they won't come.