No-match ruling makes no sense

By: North County Times Opinion Staff

Our view: Screening for illegal workers a valid immigration enforcement tool

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2007
SAN DIEGO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

Wednesday's decision by a federal judge that the Bush administration's effort to crack down on illegal workers is itself illegal defies common sense. Such thinking may actually prevent this country from reaching a balanced approach to immigration.

The government regularly sends out so-called "no-match" letters to employers when the names and Social Security numbers submitted by employees don't correspond with those on file. The well-known gaps in this system allow undocumented workers to gain legal employment in this country.

The change proposed by the White House would have required the Department of Homeland Security to pressure businesses into resolving no-match problems within 90 days. If they failed to comply, employers could have faced criminal fines and other sanctions.

In issuing his injunction, Judge Charles Breyer ruled that new regulation would violate two obscure federal laws. He also wrote that the rule was burdensome to employers and threatened "irreparable" damage to employees.

The system for verifying whether a worker's citizenship status authorizes employment is a farce that requires both employers and employees to engage in a mutual game of deceit. The beauty of the no-match crackdown is that it improves a legitimate function of government while reducing pressure to use more heavy-handed measures to combat illegal immigration, such as a border fence and raids.

Opponents of increased enforcement also fail to recognize that this new policy may reveal just how dependent we are on foreign labor. If businesses start dismissing huge chunks of their workforce, momentum may shift to efforts to expand temporary worker programs, work visas and legal immigration.

As an added bonus, punishing people who misuse Social Security numbers may decrease identity theft.

This decision was just a temporary injunction based on a technicality, but any attempt to block the government from verifying the very documentation it requires for legal employment only fuels anti-illegal immigrant sentiment. Opponents of the policy would be wise to abandon this effort and focus on more defensible goals.

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