Guzzardi-Department of Labor Ignores Its Legal Obligation to

Department of Labor Ignores Its Legal Obligation to Use E-Verify

By Joe Guzzardi, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow. Guzzardi's Op-eds about California social issues have appeared in newspapers throughout California and elsewhere for 15 years., November 17, 2011 (25 minutes ago)

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Evidence mounts that President Obama’s administration sanctions hiring illegal aliens.

A year ago, Patricia Shiu, director of the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, issued a directive that overturned George W. Bush’s guidelines requiring OFCCP investigators in certain cases to examine I-9 immigration status forms or to use Homeland Security’s electronic E-Verify program to identify illegal workers.

Under Shiu’s new directive, OFCCP is focused on racial and gender discrimination. Shiu, in a statement, confirmed that her agency is committed to protecting workers from discrimination including the hundreds of qualified white, black, Asian and female job seekers involved. That’s fine as far as it goes. But what about illegal aliens who take jobs that should be held by Americans?

An October 20 OFCCP announcement that it had reached a discrimination settlement with Texas-based Caviness Beef Packers caught the attention of Monique Miles. Caviness has a $20 million contract to supply meat products for the federal school lunch program; Miles is a lawyer with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a Washington group that seeks to protect legal rights and property of U.S. citizens from “damages caused by unlawful immigration.â€