Thursday, August 02, 2007

Immigration: Bush Cracking Down on Employers

Those coming from the google search for information on the Minnesota bridge collapse, those rolling updates are at this page.

As well he should and it is about damn time. I have said on multiple occasions that we need to enforce the laws we have on the books and this will be a welcome start to that.

WASHINGTON: Employers across the U.S. are preparing to fire

workers with questionable Social Security government identification numbers to avoid getting snagged in a Bush administration crackdown on illegal immigrants.

The Department of Homeland Security is expected to make public soon new rules for employers notified when their worker's name or Social Security number was flagged by the Social Security Administration.

The rule, as initially drafted, requires employers to fire people who cannot be verified as a legal worker and cannot resolve within 60 days why the name or Social Security number on their W-2 doesn't match the government's database.

Employers who do not comply could face fines of $250 to $10,000 (€180 to €7,300) per illegal worker and incident.



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Yes, we need to secure our borders, but we also need to make sure that employers are not offering incentives, by way of jobs, to those that come here illegally through the back door, instead of using the legal means available to enter our country.

The Social Security Administration has sent "no match" letters to workers and their employers notifying them of the information discrepancies for years. Its goal has been to make sure money withheld from a person's paycheck is credited to the correct worker.

The letters are not shared with other government agencies because of privacy laws.

Although employers are prohibited by law from hiring illegal workers, their responsibilities with the letters have generally ended with notifying the workers of the discrepancies and leaving it to them to deal with it.

Many employers have been warned by attorneys to be careful not to fire a worker because they got a letter, because the no match could be the result of a typo in a name or number, a computer error, a name change that was not reported after marriage or other reasons.

But those who do not comply with the new rule could be deemed as knowingly hiring an illegal worker.

The Homeland Security Department says the new rule provides guidance to employers on how to deal with workers who receive no match letters and give those who comply "safe harbor" if illegal workers are found at their business in an investigation or raid, said Russ Knocke, Homeland Security department spokesman.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Homeland Security Department, "is going to be tough and aggressive in the enforcement of the law," Knocke said. "You are going to see more work site cases. And no more excuses."


Read the rest. Now that the flawed immigration bill was so soundly rejected by a tremendous amount of outrage from the American people, it is time to roll up those sleeves and get to work on handling the issue from within as well as securing those borders.

For the strawman arguments that anyone that wants our laws enforced, must be a racist, let me remind you folks, we welcome legal immigrants and always have, but we must stop illegal immigration and they must understand that it will not be tolerated and they will be thrown out on their asses if they break the very first law they see upon entering our country by entering illegally.

Enough is enough.

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