Thread: San Jose Mercury: The Wrong Way To Police Immigration

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_6580217

+++

The Department of Homeland Security is about to crack down on businesses that employ undocumented workers. The result will likely be a massive firing of illegal immigrants that will disrupt farms and service industries in California and undermine the stability of immigrant neighborhoods.

Congress and President Bush bear the blame for a continued failure to pass comprehensive immigration reforms. But Homeland Security shouldn't be setting immigration policy on its own instead.

The department's new regulations will require businesses to straighten out discrepancies in tax documents that workers provide. Companies that can't square the information will have to either dismiss workers or face stiff fines of up to $10,000.

An estimated 5 million to 7 million workers are undocumented. They represent 5 percent of America's overall workforce but as high as 70 percent of agricultural workers. Many of them supply fake Social Security numbers to get jobs.

Every year the Social Security Administration sends out "no-match letters" to workers and eventually to employers pointing out inconsistencies between employees' names and their tax ID numbers. There have been no consequences to ignoring them, so that's what businesses largely have done for the past 20 years.

Homeland Security is now proposing stiff penalties to prod employers to act. It plans to mail about 140,000 notifications to companies with at least 10 discrepancies.

The department drew up the regulations last year but put off implementing them while Congress considered a sweeping immigration bill supported by President Bush. It would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain work permits, and, under the most promising proposal, provided permanent residency, in exchange for back taxes, fines and background checks. Now that the bill has died, the department is prematurely pressing ahead. Workplace raids, arrests of the undocumented, and dismissals should not become de facto federal policy.

The consequences will be severe. Industries dependent on immigrant workers, like restaurants, construction and farms, may face labor shortages. Fired workers will be driven into the underground economy. Companies worried about being potentially liable for firings based on bad information may shy away from hiring even legal immigrants.

And it's not just undocumented workers who will be dragged into the maw. Social Security estimates that there are inconsistencies with the records of 13 million American citizens, due to clerical errors, name changes and spelling mistakes. They too may face dismissal if they can't straighten out their records.

Employers do have a responsibility to verify workers' identities. Laws should be followed. But an enforcement-only approach is no substitute for balanced policy. Business and immigration-rights groups should unite to put immigration reform back on Congress' agenda.

The Department of Homeland Security is about to crack down on businesses that employ undocumented workers. The result will likely be a massive firing of illegal immigrants that will disrupt farms and service industries in California and undermine the stability of immigrant neighborhoods.

That's the point, you idiot! So they'll GO HOME!

And it's not just undocumented workers who will be dragged into the maw.

Oh yeah...those poor, pitiful undocumented workers...so abused.