Thread: Taking illegal workers off the state payroll- Mass

http://www.dailynewstribune.com/opinion ... 0950019071



Editorial: Taking illegal workers off the state payroll
Monday, February 26, 2007 - Updated: 12:45 AM EST



The impacts of illegal immigration go beyond the cost of public services, the strains on law enforcement and the stress of crowded neighborhoods and changing communities. Illegal immigration also upsets the business balance. Companies willing to hire workers without documentation, or give work to subcontractors who hire illegal workers, have a competitive advantage over companies that play by the rules. That can force good companies out of business or out of the state, while pushing down wages, especially for jobs in the service sector or construction trades.
The best response to illegal hiring is greater enforcement by the federal government, but the feds have shown little interest in workplace enforcement. An employer can still resolve to obey the law and insist his contractors do the same, and that is exactly what is being done by a most important employer: the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Gov. Deval Patrick Friday signed an executive order requiring all state contractors verify the legal status of their workers. The order, effective immediately, requires contractors working on state projects to certify they will not knowingly use undocumented workers and will not accept altered or falsified documents from their employees. Violation of the order can result in fines or termination of the contracts.

Reaction was swift from advocates for immigrant rights, who charged that document verification procedures are faulty and warned that legal immigrants will face discrimination by employers worried about breaking the rules. Those concerns are valid, but not sufficient. Verification systems should be tested and, if needed, improved. Real-time verification, done right, should protect law-abiding employers and documented workers, not threaten them.

Patrick's initiative will be important on state construction projects, because of the rising concern among long-time builders who say they are being priced out of the market by out-of-state contractors using undocumented workers. But its biggest impact may be on contractors who clean state offices, serve food at state colleges, do laundry at state prisons.

To enhance their bottom lines, private companies will often choose contractors who bid jobs low. With government contracts, hiring the lowest bidder is often required by law. Without enforcement of the kind Patrick is promising, there is increasing pressure on contractors to keep the state's business by breaking the immigration laws.

Like Patrick, this page has argued for comprehensive immigration reform, which would step up enforcement while expanding legal immigration and providing a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million immigrants now here immediately. But while we wait for Washington to act, there's nothing wrong with making state government part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

As with all immigration policies, this one will only work if there is sufficient follow-through. We await further details about how Patrick will enforce his executive order, but we congratulate him on the idea.

This is a good step forward.