Thread: Some predict economic turmoil from new workplace rules

Aug. 11, 2007, 7:48PM
Some predict economic turmoil from new workplace rules
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spe ... 46029.html


By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT and JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle


Highlights of the crackdown

• Hold employers liable for employing workers who have been notified of problems with their Social Security information and have not resolved the situation in 90 days.
• Narrow the number of documents employers can accept to verify a worker's eligibility.

• Prevent illegal immigrants who have agreed to leave the country from remaining in the country through legal maneuvers by making them subject to deportation if arrested.

• Direct the Labor Department to make changes to the H2A agricultural seasonal worker program so it is easier for farmers to use and protects workers' rights.

• Spend more money to speed up background checks on immigrants.

• Expand lists of organized gangs from other nations whose members are barred from automatic entry to the U.S.

• Continue to work on creating a system that will record the exit of foreigners from the country for air, land and sea ports.
From the fields of the Rio Grande Valley to the streets of Houston and beyond, employers, workers and immigrant-rights activists alike predicted Friday that the Bush administration's new crackdown on illegal immigration could throw huge numbers of people off the job and send a shiver through several sectors of the economy.

The administration's announcement that it would activate in 30 days the new rules — which could mean big fines and criminal sanctions for employers who knowingly keep illegal immigrants on the job — hit like a thunderclap.

Unless they can reconcile discrepancies, employers will have to fire workers, or face fines, when notified that the employees' names and Social Security numbers don't match. Many illegal immigrants have used false numbers to get jobs.

The regulations "will be absolutely devastating" to citrus and vegetable growers in the Rio Grande Valley, said Ray Prewett, president of McAllen-based Texas Citrus Mutual growers association.

"We've got the fall harvest coming up," said Prewett, who estimates that up to 70 percent of his agricultural industry's work force is here illegally. "We'll have a problem because we can't find domestic workers that have acceptable papers."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, pledging a full effort by his department to enforce the law, acknowledged that the action will pinch an economy where 5 percent of the civilian labor force, or more than 7 million people, is here illegally.

"There is going to be an economic consequence to tough enforcement," Chertoff said at a Washington news conference where he unveiled a series of tougher enforcement measures with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.


Firings already reported
In Houston, businesses mindful of the upcoming regulations already have been firing workers after receiving letters from the government saying employees' names and Social Security numbers don't match federal records, said the head of a workers' advocacy group.
"It's going to have a real severe effect on many, many people and industries," said Annica Gorham, director of the Houston Interfaith Worker Justice Center. "Especially agricultural and service sector jobs — at hotels, restaurants, car washes — you name it."

And that's as it should be, according to groups that favor tighter immigration control.

''I'm for enforcing our laws,'' said Louise Whiteford, president of the Houston-based Texans for Immigration Reform. But she questioned how seriously the administration will enforce the employer rules. "I mean, we've had legislation to increase the Border Patrol and putting a fence up at the border, and nothing happens."

At a Houston day labor site, an undocumented workers said tougher rules would dash immigrants' hopes of getting steady jobs with local companies.

''Without identification, you can't do anything,'' said Julian Bernal, an immigrant from Mexico.

Recognizing that agriculture, in particular, could be harmed by the crackdown, Gutierrez said the administration will search for ways to improve a seasonal agricultural worker program disliked by employers because of its red tape and onerous mandates.

He and Chertoff made clear that with Congress' failure to enact sweeping immigration changes, the administration will crack down on illegal immigration with its available tools. Those includes moving to raise by as much as 25 percent the fines for employing illegal immigrants, which range as high as $10,000 per worker.

While most employers want to follow the law, Chertoff said, "obviously, there are employers who deliberately violate the law and we will come down on them like a ton of bricks.''


Mass firings or walkouts?
Employers will get 30 days after receiving a Social Security Administration "no-match" letter to work to resolve the problems, such as typographical errors or a woman not changing forms to show her married name. With no resolution in 90 days and no proof of the worker's legal status, the employer is required to fire the worker or risk a penalty.
"We know employers will feel threatened by these actions, and there could be mass firings if worse comes to worse," said Mike Espinoza of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 5,300 janitorial workers in Houston, most immigrants.

But Laura Reiff, co-chair of a business coalition that lobbied Congress for a temporary worker program and legalization for millions of illegal immigrants, predicted it's more likely that employees will walk off the job when informed of a no-match letter. "I don't want to say it's mass layoffs because it's probably going to be caused more by people just walking out the door," she said.

Reiff said groups such as hers are exploring all options, including challenging the new rules in court or seeking congressional intervention. The Senate Judiciary Committee will convene a hearing about the rules in September.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, welcomed the administration's action.

"Today's announcement, while no substitute for comprehensive immigration reform, is an important and long overdue step to regaining the trust of the American people that the federal government is serious about securing our borders and enforcing our laws," he said.

Cornyn voted against the comprehensive Senate immigration bill favored by the White House because he viewed it as weak on enforcement.

Mittelstadt reported from Washington.

michelle.mittelstadt@chron.com; james.pinkerton@chron.com

''Without identification, you can't do anything,'' said Julian Bernal, an immigrant from Mexico

I just LOVE the above quote.....

You can go HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by grandmasmad

''Without identification, you can't do anything,'' said Julian Bernal, an immigrant from Mexico

I just LOVE the above quote.....

You can go HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's been true for Americans for a very long time.

But I will believe it works, when I see it - I think this is hype.

Also, I think the hammer fell when we saw the list of 'new and improved' worker programs that have been touted.

These workers are going to be changed overnight from illegal to legal.
That will be the only change.

I think the 30 days wait is not to get it straightened out - but to allow the employer and government time to get the new papers to the employee that magically makes them a 'legal' worker.
That way the employer will not be one day without his/her illegals.

ANYONE COMPLAINING THAT THEY DONT HAVE ENOUGH EMPLOYEES BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO HIRE LEGAL WORKERS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED. IF THEY CANT MAKE IT BECAUSE OF THE CRACKDOWN, THEN THEY HAVE BEEN HIRING ILLEGALS. OTHERWISE THERE WOULD BE NO PROBLEM