Cracks in crackdown on illegal workers (homeland security & SS records could cost YOU your job)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10320725

Published Sunday | April 27, 2008
Cracks in crackdown on illegal workers
BY CINDY GONZALEZ
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

It's a scenario that frustrates those who enforce immigration laws.

A company receives federal notice that the Social Security number of an employee doesn't correspond with other records. That can be a sign that a worker is not in the United States legally.

Some bosses ignore the letters, which are sent by the Social Security Administration, and business goes on.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is trying to enforce compliance, despite a federal court injunction last year and resistance from business and civil rights leaders.

Friday was the final day for public comment on a proposed Homeland Security rule that could force employers to fire workers who have questionable Social Security numbers. Companies that failed to follow specific instructions and deadlines pertaining to so-called no-match letters would face stiff penalties.

The proposed no-match rule is essentially the same as the rule blocked by the injunction, though Homeland Security added more analysis as a way to address some concerns of the U.S. District Court in Northern California, said department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.

Homeland Security hopes the court now will lift its injunction, Kudwa said. As a backup, the government also is appealing the federal injunction, she said.

Immigration officials, meanwhile, argue that the proposed no-match rule not only would be a tool for cracking down on illegal hiring practices but also would provide "safe harbor" against prosecution for firms that are in compliance.

For those employers that would rather turn a blind eye, we're going to enforce the law," Kudwa said.

Critics insist that the no-match regulations would result in the mass firings of legal residents and U.S. citizens and impose devastating costs on American businesses and the economy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week said a consultant it hired estimated that the plan to crack down on illegal workers could cost employers more than $1 billion a year and much more in lost wages to legal workers.

FULL story at link. Mistakes in SS records that can't be fixed in the required 90 days will cost many their jobs!

[Turbineguy]

1. What about using this metric?

Employers who are heavy GOP contributors.

[notesdev]

2. You'd catch

almost all of them.

It's not as if BushCo & Friends haven't been explicit about the relationship between illegal labor, the businesses that profit by it, and the GOP leadership which profits by enabling it.

[mrcheerful]

3. If they have nothing to hide then they have nothing to fear?

Seems that big business is complaining the loudest over this and why is that? Because they worry about their Workers? :sarcasm: Sorry but anything big business is against I'm all for.

[glowing]

4. As a civil liberties issue, this kind of I.D. Americans pisses me off.

As an immigration issue, this needs to happen. If people can't find paying wages anywhere in the Americas, then we will have more people who will take it to the streets to demand a living wage and demand these unfair trade agreements are disregarded and fair trade agreements are enacted.

In a very big scheme, I have a huge issue with country and invisible lines that drawn on a map that seperate people from travelling and experiencing one another. "country" makes for enemies. It makes for patriotism, flags and little pins. It makes people do crazy things along with religion.