By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
Immigration lawyer Ann Allott offers this advice to the employers who are her clients: The days of winking and nodding at undocumented workers is over. It’s time to get out in front of anticipated new federal employee identification regulations.
Those rules are expected to be announced any day, said Allott, the founder of Allott Immigration Law Firm in
“Right now,†said Allott, “when you get a ‘no-match’ letter from the Social Security Administration, you don’t fire employees.â€
At least you don’t have to.
But with national immigration enforcement efforts swelling, Allott tells her clients they’re better off adapting now to potentially disruptive new policies than risking fines as high as $10,000 per employee.
“I had an employer do it this week,†Allott said. “We agreed that 30 days would be a reasonable period of time for an employee to prove he had a valid Social Security number.â€
After that, an employee with a disputed Social Security number is let go until he can validate his legal status. But that isn’t usually necessary.
When you establish firing deadlines, explained Allott, “the undocumented flee.â€
That’s a disruptive, but unavoidable fact of business life.
“We have left the permissive time when employers protected undocumented workers,†said Allott.
“ICE (the federal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) spent $47 million this year on enforcement. It will spend $100 million next year.â€
That doesn’t mean the new guidelines, rumored to be announced soon, will make things much better in the short term. Firing people with invalid Social Security numbers will “cause chaos,†Allott predicted.
For starters, the estimated 12 million to 20 million undocumented people living in the
The real answer, said Allott, is the very thing that hamstrung the recent Congressional debate on comprehensive immigration reform:
A way to legal status for those currently here illegally.
Those folks help the American economy more than they hurt it. Forcing them to leave is an expensive exercise in futility that dwarfs the passport program.
Undocumented workers need “temporary protected status,†Allott argued. “That’s what we do for (people who seek political or social asylum).â€
Most of the folks the haters disdainfully refer to as “illegal aliens†are willing to labor until they drop at jobs that employers would otherwise have trouble filling, Allott insisted.
“All they want is the right to work and the right to travel,†Allott said.
That’s not entirely true. Undocumented foreign workers want to send their kids to Americans schools so the children can learn and rise above their parents’ circumstances. Illegal immigrants also need access to medical care in a system that doesn’t break the bank by forcing them to emergency rooms.
So far, Congress has refused to deal with any of that.
“Congress,†said Allott, “is paralyzed.â€
As a result, the country will soon embark on another half-baked regulatory theory of immigration control that seems as destined for failure as its predecessors.
“I’d love to see undocumented people become legal,†said Allott, “but the history of prejudice in this country probably won’t allow it.â€
In 1882 Congress passed an “exclusion act†to keep out Chinese immigrants. This was succeeded by a quota system in 1943. It took the immigration reform bill of 1965 to really reopen the country to Chinese people.
Of course that is nothing compared to how the
American Indians didn’t qualify for citizenship until 1924. And it took until the middle of the 20th century for every state to finally grant Indians the right to vote.
This doesn’t bode well for the Latino immigrants our current nativists love to hate.
If European settlers had to be badgered to offer Native Americans citizenship and the franchise, think how they’ll react to interlopers from South of the border.
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
8 users commented in " New Regulations, Same Old Prejudice "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackSo far, our elected people in Washington have proved to one and all that as a group they operate in a “cojones-free” state.
If we are going to have new rules submitted by Homeland Security, I’d like to see them implement them in the Colorado ski industry this fall.
Let the new rules affected Colorado’s overall economy and disrupt the winter tourist trade, and I am sure the Governor will ring up the Congressional team in Washington, wake them up and yell “Help.”
Truly dirupting the ski industry will be a sight to see. For those who hate the “illegals” in our state, happy skiing this winter.
Jose and Martha won’t be there to pamper you and as a result the tourists will stay away…forever.
That alone is worth the price of the ticket to watch as we preserve our western heritage and land for own for years to come.
No Jose and Martha…no more tourists!
Green forever….
It’s hard to determine the point of this column. Laws that are currently in place to penalize business for hiring illegal immigrants are finally now being held accountable. It is very very easy to validate a social security number at the SSA office by showing up and asking them to do so. A person that has been issued a legal social security number that does not match is able to prove rather quickly the validity. Rather than increase fraud, the enforcement will actually reduce it by forcing the same documentation that all of the rest of us must provide as well when applying for a job. A couple of declines on the job hunt will discourage the hunter. Quite frankly, although harsh, it is not our problem (although it has become so) that a person skirted the traditional immigration methods in order to better their own existance. It is sad that so many families will be affected, but once the laws that are currently on our books are enforced perhaps we can get a handle on the scope of the problem and possibly create an amnesty situation for the people that are currently here. People will fall through the cracks, but until enforcement happens the southern border is going to continue to be an open gate of illegal immigration. I am not anti immigrant, nor anti hispanic. I love their culture and ethics. But a line must be drawn in the sand.
When the social security number does not match up with the data base, what happens to the tax money paid from the bogus number? Does it go into the soc. sec. fun, general fund, the Iraq War, someone’s pocket? Could it be used for immigrant health care?
The prejudice was fomented by the Bush administration after 9/11 by not securing the borders and enforcing immigration laws. When people see hundreds of thousands of immigrants crossing illegally they know they are not safe from future terrorism. They want English, the common denominator, to be the official language as it always was, but now we have a dual language country. They can’t afford health care and their jobs are threatened by cheap labor. Karl Rove’s master plan for elimination of the middle class is ever closer. Untied we stand, divided we fall.
Adam2, these aren’t new rules. If the ski industry is hiring illegal immigrants, then they will pay severely. This will help raise the wages for labor.
Many businesses in this country have come to rely on illegal immigrant labor and illegal immigrants rely on the businesses that hire them. That doesn’t make it right. A person can be against illegal immigration without being a racist and without hating illegal or legal immigrants. Calling someone a racist for being against illegal immigration is the way some liberals help support the policies of anti-working class conservatives.
If businesses need illegal immigrants to work for them, why not make it easier for people to immigrate legally? Why should businesses get whatever they want at the expense of everyone else? I suspect that the reason things are the way they are now is because illegal immigrants are easier for employers to exploit. That means that they are not paid minimum wage and employers do not have to obey any of the few laws in this country that protect workers. I almost never see this fact discussed by anyone who is supposedly liberal or conservative. Most of what I have read or heard on this subject has been dishonest for leaving out the obvious facts about this situation.
It may be true that if workers are paid a living wage in this country that prices will go up. Prices are already going up for other reasons, especially the cherished American value known as greed. Since the Democratic Party has adopted a platform which favors corporations over workers and consumers, there is no party to represent the less privileged people in the United States. Mexico and other countries should be responsible for the welfare of their own citizens. We should not subsidize their irresponsibility.
Conservatives often say they favor a free market without government interference. When our tax money is used for pork barrel projects and for other subsidies to corporations, such as the proposed guest worker program or tax cuts, only people who are naive or dishonest could ever call that a “free” market.
If we grant citizenship to 20 million illegal immigrants, they will no longer be poor destitute people from a country that has failed its citizens in every way, forcing them here in the first place.
They will be Americans. And they will soon wake up to the low wages and semi-slave labor and join the rest of Americans in wanting a decent pay for a day’s work.
Then our businesses will cry they need more immigrant labor. Soon there will be 20 million immigrants to take over their low-paying jobs. Where does it end?
Wouldn’t it be better for our country to put pressure on countries like Mexico to provide for their citizens? Besides having no jobs, these people live in fear of the drug lords in their country. Can’t our “mighty” nation do something for these poor people to have a decent life in their own country?
hi i enjoyed the read
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