Judge Halts Illegal Immigrant Notices

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Social Security Administration cannot start sending out letters to employers next week containing notification of more serious penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Ruling on a lawsuit by the nation's largest federation of labor unions against the U.S. government, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the so-called "no-match" letters from going out as planned starting Tuesday.

The AFL-CIO lawsuit, filed this week, claims that new Department of Homeland Security rules outlined in accompanying letters threaten to violate workers' rights and unfairly burden employers. Chesney said the court needs "breathing room" before making any decision on the legality of new penalties aimed at cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants.

She set the next hearing on the matter for Oct. 1.

Read more: http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8rcekk80&

[pinto]

1. Interesting background info on the lawsuit, from the same article:

In its lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue that the Bush administration could inadvertently harm legal U.S. workers and law-abiding businesses in its quest to punish employers who are knowingly breaking the law.

The suit says the new rules could lead to the unfair firing of legal workers. The vast majority of the discrepancies in the Social Security Administration's database — more than 70 percent of the 17.8 million discrepancies, according to a 2006 report by the SSA's Office of the Inspector General — involve native-born U.S. citizens, the lawsuit notes.

The plaintiffs also argue that many of the discrepancies are caused by clerical errors, or stem from name changes or different naming conventions — such as the use of multiple surnames — that are popular particularly among Asians and Latin Americans.

[VP505]

2. Well we certainly

can't allow anything that would "unfairly burden employers" while they are exploiting illegal workers, driving down wages and busting unions.:sarcasm:

[Triana]

3. Pffft! Exactly. Those "poor" employers (n/t)