Thread: U.S. Businesses Fear Illegal Foreign Worker Crackdown

US businesses fear illegal foreign worker crackdown
Jul 26 10:01 AM US/Eastern




US businesses are bracing for a possible major crackdown on illegal foreign workers, as the government seeks to give immigration authorities more power to punish companies hiring undocumented workers.
President George W. Bush's administration has proposed a federal regulation that unions warn could lead to mass firings nationwide by companies seeking to avoid prosecution and fines.

"It's going to put businesses all over the nation in a bind," said Tamar Jacoby, an immigration expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

"If the feds (federal authorities) really follow through with this, and I think they're going to, you're going to see lots of industries ... leave the US," Jacoby said.

The rule under consideration in Washington relates directly to the potentially fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, which employees provide at the time of hiring.

Fake Social Security cards are widely available on the black market, allowing many immigrants to work at major US corporations.

Jacoby said the proposed regulation, left pending since June 2006, was boxed up while Congress debated a sweeping immigration reform plan that recently collapsed.


Since the legislation was buried, businesses have braced for the worksite enforcement regulation to be adopted by the Department of Homeland Security, she said.

The largest chicken processor in the United States, Pilgrim's Pride, has fired more than 100 employees who cannot produce valid Social Security numbers, according to news reports and advocates for the workers in rural east Texas.

Experts describe the firings as a pre-emptive move ahead of beefed-up enforcement.

The company has acknowledged firing workers although it would not say what motivated the layoffs or how many were let go. It has hired replacement workers.

"There undoubtedly will be additional terminations," said Gary Rhodes, a spokesman for Pilgrim's, which has 55,000 employees in the United States and Mexico.

The government routinely alerts companies when suspicious numbers are entered into the Social Security Administration's (SSA) electronic database, but experts say current law essentially allows employers to ignore the warning letters.

In a 2006 fact sheet, the White House said the proposed regulation would make it "clear that employers who ignore the discrepancies between SSA databases and the information provided by their employees may be viewed under the law as knowing that the employees are illegal workers, making it easier ... to prosecute violators."

Companies that knowingly hire illegal workers can face criminal prosecution and be hit with fines of up to 10,000 dollars per worker for repeat violations.

According to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the proposed rule remains pending. But business leaders believe authorities may announce its final adoption before the summer is out.


ICE spokeswoman Pat Reilly could not give a timetable for when it might be adopted, but she said it was a "well intentioned regulation and one hopes that it will get full consideration."

Bill Hammond, head of the Texas Association of Business and part of a national business alliance that pushed for immigration reform in Washington, said the migrant job losses at Pilgrim's could be the tip of the iceberg.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, with as many as a 10th of them in Texas.

"There are a lot of employees in Texas ... who are undocumented workers," Hammond said. "A lot of them could be out of the workforce over the next six to 12 months."
Immigrant advocacy groups, labor unions and a coalition of national business groups have criticized the proposal.

The AFL-CIO, an umbrella group representing 53 unions and nearly nine million workers, warned the government last year that the proposed rule would "trigger mass firings across the nation" and lead to discrimination against legal workers.

"It's going to put employers in a position pretty quickly of, I think, having to terminate workers," said John Gay, vice-president for government relations at the National Restaurant Association. "We are concerned about it."


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

Do we really think that this will happen?

Pilgrim’s Pride replaced their fired workers, so is it impossible to believe that further firings would not follow suite? I think the biggest issue to be considered here is that if mass firings do materialize how many more law enforcement personnel would be needed to help combat an overbearing upswing in criminal activity; i.e., theft, burglary, violence and gang activity, as well as drug smuggling?

In the event that jobs dry up, most will go elsewhere or go home, but some will not. Those will end up being a burden in some way or another.

If these companys want to move out of the U.S. I say get the hell out, but don't expect me to buy your product, you will not black mail the American people. Start fireing and deport, give it a try and do something different for a change. If it gets all that bad they can bring people in legally, but they better prove they can not get American workers and after all illegals are gone home, period, And we are sick of your crap scare tactic's Tamar Jacoby, we have your traitorous number also!!


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Originally Posted by CCUSA

"It's going to put employers in a position pretty quickly of, I think, having to terminate workers," said John Gay, vice-president for government relations at the National Restaurant Association. "We are concerned about it." [/b]

John Gay is also the Chairman of the National Immigration Forum! The NIF is not an immigrant organization, they are a cheap labor organization!

Some fired illegals will go home, others will stay here and live off of their anchor babies. For example California pays for up to eight children! We will need to turn off that "magnet" next.

Yes let the traitor businesses move out of the country,it is time to clear the US of those who favor illegal & legal immigrant cheap labor that take jobs from citizens.Then businesses will spring up who will hire citizens.......the sooner they leave the better...make room for american patriot businesses !!

I think we all are guilty of buying the cheapest instead of "Made in America" and I believe we have all learned our lesson.

Pilgrim's has had a facility in Mexico for almost 20 years.

To fire 100 employees and pretend it is something is an insult - they have 55,000 -

Also, if they have replaced them with Americans it may be to get some good PR for the government and Pilgrim's. If they lay off many illegals, they will simply bring in more of their legal employees from Mexico.
They have many of those.

Many of these are educated people with educated spouses that are taking jobs - their kids are clogging the school just like illegals. A lot of them have the same attitude toward Americans that the marchers did.

It will not be a better situation.

Pay close attention to this, there is a reason they are announcing this and it isn't because they are afraid of the government.

They may need them at the Mexico plant with all the Mexicans here now.

Mr. Pilgrim is elderly now and I don't know how much he has to do with the running. He was once, however, caught handing out $10K checks on the floor of the Texas congress. His reply, "I mow my own yard, (no reference to illegals, just doing his own 'work') I don't give my money through PAC's."