Guest blog by AILA Board member Jerome Grzeca, Grzeca Law Group, S.C.

In just 4 months since its original posting, over 6 million people have tuned in to You Tube to see actor Bob Basso take on the role of Founding Father Thomas Paine in the video titled, “We the People Stimulus Package.” Viewers are undoubtedly attracted to Basso’s dramatic flair and plain-spoken approach toward issues including government spending, taxation, international affairs and immigration. While some may appreciate the “entertainment value” Basso provides, several of his satirical remarks made as fact are completely fictional. Furthermore, his choice to present as Mr. Paine, an immigrant, is dumbfounding.

Basso would have his viewers believe that Paine was a proponent of big government, anti-immigration laws and constraining policies. In fact, Paine would have supported just the opposite. By all accounts, he was a radical; a man whose ideals were deeply entrenched in the belief that each person, regardless of origin or religious faction should be free. He once said, “The world is my country, all mankind my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” Does this echo that of Basso’s xenophobic rant?

Paine, an immigrant, wrote the three top-selling literary works of the eighteenth century, inspiring the American Revolution, issuing a battle cry for individual rights and challenging the corrupt power of government. In his pamphlet “Rights of Man, Part II,” Paine affirmed his libertarian principles stating, “Great part of order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished.” These are not the words of a man who would call for the mandatory implementation of E-Verify, a costly, burdensome and invasive governmental system that during its testing phase negatively impacted the livelihoods of many American citizens who were incorrectly identified as illegal immigrants.

Perhaps instead of sending a tea bag to his local government official, Basso should sit down to a warm cup and do some real research on the issues surrounding immigration. He would find that many of his lecture points are completely unsubstantiated.

BASSO: “[The government] hands $30 billion of a bankrupted treasury to illegal alien welfare, rewarding lawbreakers for making a mockery of your laws.”
FACT: To the contrary, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive any “welfare” benefits and even legal immigrants are severely restricted in the benefits they can receive.

BASSO: “[The government] allows 20 million illegal aliens to reap the benefits of a [social security] retirement program that legal citizens paid into all their lives.”
FACT: The estimated 11.6 million unauthorized workers are not, and have never been, eligible to claim social security benefits. On the contrary, according to a 2005 Social Security Administration (SSA) report, undocumented immigrants paid $520 billion into the Social Security system under names or social security numbers that don’t match SSA records, and will likely never be able to recoup that money.

BASSO: “[The government] should make English the united language of America – giving every legal immigrant a chance to succeed.”
FACT: English is already the united language of America, without government intervention. Furthermore, along with showing a basic knowledge of U.S. history and government, applicants for U.S. citizenship are required to display an ability to read, write and speak English.

BASSO: “No tax payer money should be given to illegal aliens – do not reward lawbreakers.”
FACT: The immigrant community is not a drain on the U.S. economy but, in fact, proves to be a net benefit. Research reported by both the CATO Institute and the President’s Council of Economic Advisors reveals that the average immigrant pays a net 80,000 dollars more in taxes than they collect in government services. For immigrants with college degrees the net fiscal return is $198,000.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, Basso states that Americans “have become nothing more than cowering spectators watching the nation their grandparents built – the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history – with the highest standing any nation ever achieved – now in the greatest decline in history.” This great nation, the one our immigrant grandparents worked so hard to build, would not be what it was without the huddled masses who immigrated to the United States. The settling of America began with the belief that people – regardless of ethnicity – could live together and govern themselves by making laws for the common good. From time-to-time, this important part of America’s history will be forgotten, and it will take more than an amateur video to bring fact to light. The fact is that America is different – we are the “Nation of Immigrants” and should never forget it.

A sensible comprehensive immigration reform package will have to include smart enforcement, a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the U.S., elimination of family and employment-based visa backlogs, adequate visas to meet the needs of U.S. families and businesses, a new visa program for essential workers, and due process protections to restore the rule of law in our immigration adjudications and courts. AILA Welcomes Obama’s Proactive Push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year. It also provides a unique opportunity to “do the right thing for same sex couples”.

More than 100 lawmakers in the House and about 20 in the Senate have signed onto bills that would add the United States to the 19 countries that already recognize same-sex couples for immigration purposes. Gay rights groups are encouraged that President Barack Obama has signaled that he would like to include same sex couples in immigration reform bills. Both the NAACP and the American Bar Association have spoken in favor of including “permanent partners” as part of an immigration bill, saying that current law amounts to discrimination.” AP, July 18, 2009. Same-sex couples seek immigration benefit ‎

AILA has long supported the position that same-sex relationships should be given the same treatment under US immigration law as heterosexual couples. AILA’s Board of Governors adopted a resolution on March 21, 2001 supporting the position that same-sex relationships should be given the same treatment. Mike Honda Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif lead author of the “Reuniting Families Act,” credited one of his constituents for bringing the issue to his attention. Honda said his Japanese heritage contributed to his taking a closer look at protecting same-sex couples through an overhaul of the nation’s immigration law.

State Department regulations provide visa options for cohabitating partners of non-citizens but obtaining visas for same-sex partners of U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents is extremely difficult. See Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual 9 FAM 41.31 N14.4 that permits visitor visa issuance for “members of a household of another alien”. 9 FAM 41.31 Temporary Visitors for Business or Pleasure – Notes

The Obama Administration’s view appear considerably more enlightened than the Bush Administration which blacklisted certain groups such as Immigration Equality, which focuses on LGBT-related immigration issues. The Gay Men’s Health Crisis immigration project was also blacklisted. Bush’s Justice Dept. blacklisted LGBT groups

The Obama Administration’s new policy has opened the way for non-citizen women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States. The action reverses a Bush administration stance in a protracted and passionate legal battle over the possibilities for battered women to become refugees. During the Clinton administration, Attorney General Janet Reno proposed regulations to clarify the matter, but they have never gone into effect. In a briefing paper in 2004, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security raised the possibility of asylum for victims of domestic violence, but the Bush administration never put that into practice in immigration court. The Department of Homeland Security filed a brief that indicates a change in policy for asylum claims filed by victims of domestic violence. New Policy Permits Asylum for Battered Women In this brief DHS states that it is possible that applicants who have experienced domestic violence could qualify for asylum based on alternative social group formations, and proposes two formulations under which victims of domestic violence might be able to advance asylum claims. AILA also welcomes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) proposal to remove “Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection” from the definition of “communicable disease of public health significance” which previously barred individuals from entering the U.S. AILA Welcomes CDC Proposal to Remove HIV from Definition of Communicable Diseases

AILA is pleased the U.S. Senate passed a provision to end the “widow penalty,” thus halting the deportation of individuals because their spouses died although some of the provisions in the bill are bad. Senate Appropriations Bill a Mixed Bag of Immigration Provisions.

AILA Past President and current Board of Governors member, Deb Notkin, posts on the idea of “Immigration Commission.”

It sounds like a reasonable idea: Create an expert “commission” of immigration to determine labor market needs and adjust flows accordingly. But looking deeper calls into question both the agenda behind this idea and the need for it.

For example, one of the pro-commission studies denies the existence of labor shortages even during the height of prosperity, when whole industries including hospitality and landscaping businesses, large and small, were prevented from fully recognizing their full production capacities due to a shortage of workers. What is clear is that the 66,000 H-2b cap numbers for seasonable workers have proven totally inadequate to fill this need during a prosperous economy. As the past 23 years have demonstrated, static caps on work visas devoid of market considerations do not work. And there is no temporary visa program to allow for non-professional workers to fill chronic, non-seasonal jobs that go begging.

So instead of static caps or a commission, we can only wonder why we can’t let the market decide the employer’s need for foreign visas. Just look at what is happening this year, where for the first time in a long time, we have yet to use all the new H-1B cap numbers for Fiscal Year 2010 for professional positions. A similar drop in activity is occurring with the H-2B numbers.
The concept of the “Commission” being put forward does not make sense because there is an absence of measurement techniques to assess our true labor-market needs. And what data we have, is updated by our government only every two years. It is backward looking and not a reasonable indicator to assess the current and present needs for foreign workers. A commission cannot predict in which sectors booms will erupt – it takes a combination of innovative entrepreneurship, consumer demand and available labor and capital. And politics will inevitably intrude on the commission process since the available hard data is not available. For a more in depth analysis of the negatives of a commission, check out the website of ImmigrationWorks USA, www.immigrationworksusa.org/index.php?p+193 , one of the business coalitions engaged in this issue.

But the worst thing about a commission is that it could derail immigration reform. Among the many proponents of immigration reform, business is an important player and realistic future labor needs must be a part of any successful reform package for business to support it.
Failing to provide for market-based temporary and permanent visas will also repeat the mistakes of 1986. In a prosperous economy, we need work visas for needed immigrants to come to the US in a safe, legal and orderly manner. Otherwise, we will have the same problems we have now and had in 1986 – a large number of foreign workers devoid of legal status.
A market-based immigration system is the best tool for using work-based visas to benefit our economy. A system that allows employers to target their personnel needs, gives them a chance to demonstrate the absence of available U.S. workers and safeguards the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers by prohibiting lesser wages and conditions for foreign workers is the way to go.

We can build a system with safeguards that work in a recession as well as in prosperity. Rather than trashing our entire current system, we can build on its successes and fix its failures. With more legal channels for workers, we can focus law enforcement on legitimate abuses rather than catching and deporting workers. But most importantly, we can make immigration reform a reality.

Today, the New York Times opined on the late Friday afternoon announcement from DHS/ICE that 287(g) authorization was granted to an additional 11 law enforcement agencies, including one here in my home state of Georgia. Gwinnett County, which has had the distinction for the last 10 years of being one of the fasted growing counties in America (mostly becuase of immigrants), held a dry run of 287(g) earlier this year, resulting in hundreds of arrests of those driving without a license and other minor traffic violations, wreaking havoc in the immigrant community, and in general causing widespread panic among immigrants there.

This major expansion of 287(g) is a disaster for immigrants, not just because those who are undocumented will become ensnared in the nightmare enforcement system we currently have, but rather because we know it will create “profiling” issues, (DWH-Driving While Hispanic), will lead to increased fear in immigrant communities, and absolute distrust of law enforcement officers trying to protect those same immigrants from real criminals.

More importantly, and something no one seems to be talking about yet, is the incredibly negative impact that selective law enforcement against immigrants will have on the outcome of the next U.S. Census, which begins in 2010. Ask yourself, as an immigrant are you more or less likely to answer that knock on the door from a U.S. Census worker in a locale that has a 287(g) agreement? That answer is crystal clear. Many national immigrant groups are actively trying to urge immigrants to answer the Census materials they will receive by mail, but we all know that door-to-door census taking, required to actually count folks, will simply not achieve the same result it otherwise would have in 287(g) communities.

Some might applaud the fact that immigrants will almost certainly be undercounted in the next U.S. Census, absent timely comprehensive immigration reform THIS YEAR. I hope they are not in the majority in Congress. To avoid this looming crisis, DHS/ICE needs to put an end to the improper enforcement of immigration law by local police and sheriffs who are NOT trained in the nuanced issues of immigration status, and refocus their efforts on enforcement by ICE against employers who intentionally break U.S. law by hiring people they know to be undocumented.

The bottom line is clear–there are no easy answers to immigration enforcement, or the Census, until Congress fixes this broken immigration system.

The battle for comprehensive immigration reform is going to be tough as Senate Republicans play politics with the critical immigration issue. The Senate passed its $44.3 billion fiscal 2010 Homeland Security appropriations measure 84-6 last week after three days of debate that differentiated the bill from its House companion on a handful of border security and immigration policies. Unfortunately Senate Republicans used the opportunity to add significant new provisions to the less controversial “extender provisions” including an extension to the Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious Worker Program and the Conrad Waiver Program for Physicians Serving in Underserved Areas. The Senate also included a provision promoted by AILA member Brent Renison to allow the foreign-born widows, children and parents of citizens who have died to retain their legal status to seek citizenship for two years after the death. Senate Appropriations Bill a Mixed Bag of Immigration Provisions

Senate Republicans added a provision to their chamber’s version of the bill (S 1298) that their House counterparts tried and failed to insert into their version (HR 2892) — an amendment requiring all federal contractors to check the eligibility of employees using the electronic E-Verify system and permanently reauthorizing it. The Senate amendment was offered by Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. The Senate adopted by voice vote a provision by Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, which would allow private sector employers using the E-Verify electronic system to check the eligibility of current workers. Currently, employees can only use the system to check new hires. This is a troubling development from the Senate as the nascent E-Verify program is only used by only about 100,000 employers and is still fraught with errors. It has a high probability for database errors, is still vulnerable to misuse, and has a potentially detrimental impact on the Social Security Administration. Supporting this still-feeble “not ready for prime-time” program is an example of our Senators putting politics over policy.

The Senate bill also picked up an amendment that could alter the construction plans for border fencing. The amendment, by Jim DeMint, R-S.C., would require that all 700 miles of border fence Congress has mandated be made with double-layer pedestrian-blocking barriers. The Department of Homeland Security says it has more than 660 miles of the fence completed, but that includes single-layer fencing and vehicle barriers. By DeMint’s figures, only 34 miles of the current fence would meet the standard.

AILA is also concerned about the Senate’s decision to invoke a tired chestnut with the vote to fund a 700-mile wall along the southwestern border. We already know that a wall does not work. It is a very expensive and ugly symbol, and nothing more. AILA believes these piecemeal non-solutions do nothing to fix our broken immigration system. Americans deserve real solutions to our problems, not flimsy bandages. We need comprehensive immigration reform that provides realistic legal means to make our immigration system work for us.

At the same time, AILA is pleased with the passage of provisions that sustain visa programs for religious workers and physicians, and end the “widow penalty,” thus halting the deportation of individuals because their spouses died. On this issue the Senate got it right. Senator Leahy’s efforts to extend the EB-5 program are also positive and much needed.

Republican opponents of immigration reform “are definitely trying to exact their pound of flesh right now, at a time when Democrats want to maintain an appearance of being strong on immigration enforcement” said Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124718283357420277.html Wall Street Journal: Senate Resists Changes on Immigration July 10, 2009

Democrats and some Republicans favor an overhaul hope to craft a single legislative package with strong immigration enforcement provisions and a path to legalization for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Mr. Obama has said he wants to see the effort get under way soon. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, is leading the effort for Democrats and, said this week that he will have a draft bill by the end of the summer. Although he opposed some of the Republican moves, Sen. Schumer said Thursday that most of the provisions wouldn’t hurt the larger reform push.

“What will make or break overall reform will be the big issues,” he said, dismissing the amendments as “little things.” Schumer: Immigration bill to be ready by Labor Day

Sen. Schumer the lead Democrat expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration.”

Even the Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler said the Senate endorsement of Vitter’s measure prevents real progress on immigration enforcement and is “a reflection of the old administration’s strategy: all show, no substance.”

In contrast, the Obama administration is trying to implement effective enforcement, he said. “We hope that the smarter strategy will prevail in the end, because the country deserves a system that works,” Chandler said. http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5690F420090710 Reuters: U.S. Senate approves $42.9 billion homeland security bill.

Lets hope only hope the Senate and House conferees remove the fence building and E-Verify proposals that are obstacles to achieving a much needed reform of our immigration laws.

Because the concept of “immigration” is so broad it touches virtually every aspect of life today in America. Whether it is health care, the environment, crime, or sports, the discussion almost always come back to immigration. That said, there are a number of terrific blogs in the “blogospehere” that merit a daily read. If you have not done so already, you can set your google reader to pull down all blogs that mention the word “immigration” (or any other word that interests you). This terrific feature then can be directed to your inbox each day.

Might I suggest that reading blogs is something more than just a time waster. It is direct, positive, and time sensitive way to get very concise bits of information. There are several key blogs (besides this one), that bear a quick glance each day to keep you up to date on what is happening in the world of immigration. They are, in no particular order:

Citizen Orange
Change.org’s Immigration Blog by Dave Bennion (an AILA Member)
A Blog by a Undocumented Student
The Law Professor’s Blog
Immigration Impact
The National Immigration Forum’s Blog

There are likely many others, but I find these all well written and timely. Bookmark them, read them, comment on them, and use them in communicating with your clients and friends to push the cause of immigration reform. Let us know what other blogs you follow on the topic of immigration.

The Senators are coming, the Senators are coming! That’s right, the Senate is debating the DHS Appropriations bill right now, and immigration amendments are being offered. I blogged about the Sessions E-Verify proposal yesterday. Well bill, that passed by voice vote this morning, but not before the Senate voted down a proposal from Senator Schumer to table the Sessions proposal. Senator Leahy, in an astute move prior to the vote on Sessions’ E-Verify bill, amended that bill to include a permanent extension of the EB-5 Regional Pilot Program. So, Leahy’s amendment permanently extending the EB-5 Regional Pilot Program was approved too!

Senator DeMint from South Carolina threw in a bill to mandate the construction of actual fences along 700 miles of the Southern Border, taking away the right of DHS/CBP to decide how best to protect that border. That has also passed.

Senator Hatch has now introduced a bill which includes positive changes including undoing the Widow Penalty, and a religious worker extension and a rural doctors program extension. You can still call the Senate Switchboard to voice your support for this latter bill, and your disgust with the Senate passage of laws without debate that will affect millions of lives and cost billions of dollars. You can reach your Senator by calling 202-224-3121.

All of these amendments, of course, must now go back to a conference committee with the House, and there is no guarantee that any of them will become law. But, lest you thought your time to relax from calling your Congressman was over, it has now started again. Get on the phone and start demanding REAL Immigration Reform, rather than this piecemeal junk.

Guest blog by Josie Gonzalez, Gonzalez & Harris
www.josiegonzalez.com

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that it is issuing 652 Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to businesses in order to audit I-9 records that contain information regarding an employee’s right to work legally in the U.S.

ICE was quite candid about how these companies were selected. They were targeted as the result of lead driven investigations and as part of the agency’s initiative to focus “… its resources on the auditing and investigation of employers suspected of cultivating illegal workplaces by knowingly employing illegal workers.”

Investigative leads come from a variety of sources including: disgruntled employees who complain about the company’s perceived disregard for immigration laws; employer filings of government labor certification applications to legalize the status of undocumented workers while continuing to employ them illegally; and consumer complaints that one’s identity is being used by an employee

Employers using E-Verify to verify the documents of new hires often harbor a false sense of security that they have hired a legal workforce. However, the incidence of identity theft is quite high; it is becoming increasingly common to find that workers have used valid documents that pass muster with E-Verify but belong to another person. Unbeknownst to most E-verify employers, the government announced that when it uncovers patterns of misuse and fraudulent documentation, it may refer the E-Verify employer to ICE for follow up investigation. (74 Fed. Reg., No. 98, pp. 24022-24027, May 22, 2009).

In a workforce comprised of many family members and friends, supervisors often know which employees are working with fraudulent documents. This knowledge may be imputed to management with resulting corporate liability.

During an audit, ICE demands the surrender of I-9s within three days. In this short timeframe, it isn’t possible to correct all I-9 deficiencies. For example, how can one update expired work authorization documents if an employee is on vacation? Nevertheless, employers facing surprise audits should make every effort to bring their I-9s into compliance by ensuring that there is an I-9 for all employees hired after November 6, 1986, that I-9s are fully completed and signed by both the employee and the employer, and that expired documents are updated. Corrections need to be initialed and dated; never backdate the forms.

Stepped up enforcement has only just begun. The smart employer will be proactive and conduct internal audits to ensure that a meaningful immigration compliance policy is in place and to uncover potential liability such as identity theft, use of fraudulent documents, careless completion of I-9 forms and — most importantly – evidence of the knowing hire or the continued employment of unauthorized workers.

Josie Gonzalez, an immigration attorney in Pasadena, California, is on the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Law Association where she chairs The Immigration Worksite Enforcement Committee.

Senator Sessions cannot leave his hands off of E-Verify. Now in “stealth” mode, Senator Sessions has slyly introduced an E-Verify amendment (SB 1371) during today’s full Senate vote on the DHS appropriations bill.

The Sessions amendment calls for a permanent reauthorization of the Basic Pilot/E-Verify program, and mandates its use for all federal contractors and subcontractors – including the verification of all existing employees. This amounts to a massive expansion of a program that is still not ready for prime-time.

We must call our Senators and tell them to oppose this sneak attack by Senator Sessions for the following reasons:

It would impose exorbitant costs on businesses at a time when our economy is most vulnerable:

An economic analysis commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
concluded that the net societal costs of the program would be $10 billion a year
– a cost that would be felt disproportionately by small businesses.

It would make Basic Pilot/E-Verify permanent without addressing its well documented database inaccuracies:

A 2007 independent evaluation of the program commissioned by DHS found that
the Basic Pilot/E-Verify database “is still not sufficiently up to date” to meet
the requirements for “accurate verification.”

SSA has estimated that if Basic Pilot/E-Verify were to become mandatory and
the databases were not improved, SSA database errors alone could result in 3.6
million workers a year being misidentified as not authorized for employment.
This would result in 6 out of every 100 workers having to visit an SSA office to
correct their records or lose their job.

It would force workers and businesses to pay a high price for Basic Pilot/E-Verify’s inaccuracies:

Queries submitted to Basic Pilot/E-Verify by Intel Corporation in 2008 resulted
in nearly 13 percent of all workers being initially flagged as unauthorized for
employment. All of these workers were cleared by Basic Pilot/E-Verify as
work-authorized, but only after “significant investment of time and money”
and “lost productivity.”

We urge all AILA members to call their Congressman today and oppose the Sessions amendment (SB 1371). Don’t let Senator Session’s stealth tactics create a nationwide crisis for employers!

While the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (“IRCA”) prohibits employers from knowingly hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized workers, the Obama Administration’s decision to vigorously enforce employer sanction laws against employers, before providing a path to U.S. employers to legalize critical essential workers, is plain bad policy. “Immigration officers are investigating workplaces in every state in the US to check whether they are hiring illegal workers.” ICE launches workplace immigration crackdown

We are in the midst of the “Great Recession” and U.S. industry is struggling to remain competitive. President Barack Obama’s strategy puts U.S. employers and industry between a rock and a hard place. While the law requires U.S. employers to verify, through a specific process, the identity and work authorization eligibility of all individuals, whether U.S. citizens or otherwise, it is practically impossible to obtain legal status for employers who discover undocumented workers in their workforce – even if they have been employed for decades. Immigrant Visa Numbers Hopelessly Encased In Amber.

The diligent employer questioning the veracity of employment eligibility documents can face discrimination charges and vigorous enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, if for example, they check only Latino workers, or subject certain classes or worker to extra scrutiny. The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel enforces the antidiscrimination provisions that protect most work-authorized persons from intentional employment discrimination based upon citizenship or immigration status, national origin, and unfair documentary practices relating to the employment eligibility verification process. The law prohibits retaliation against individuals who file charges and who cooperate with an investigation. Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair …

No one knows how many of the 6,000,000 U.S. employers, as well as household employers, are familiar with, and in full compliance with the complex U.S. immigration law. Many employers are surprised when told the law requires ALL employers to complete an Employment Verification Form I-9 for any new employee hired after November 6, 1986, or face huge civil fines, and possible jail sentences. The I-9 Employee Verification form must be completed within three days of hire for all hires including U.S. citizens.

Vigorously enforcing this law without providing employers any way to keep essential workers puts employers struggling to make ends meet with the possibility of receiving huge fines, and even prison sentences if they “knowing continuing to hire five or more workers.” Actual knowledge of the undocumented worker’s status isn’t always required, and “constructive knowledge” will suffice where the employer “should have known” of the worker’s status. For example, if the employer tries to sponsor an undocumented worker for immigration benefits, the employer is presumed to know of the workers lack of immigration status. The Department of Homeland Security, through its enforcement division, Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) has undertaken a massive new enforcement effort directed at employers large and small. More than 650 US businesses to have employee work files audited Los Angeles Times – ‎Jul 1, 2009.‎

The focus on audit enforcement is clearly evidenced by the rising number of worksite audits, increased heavy civil penalties and likely continuing criminal prosecutions resulting from worksite violations. Immigration Focus Is on the Employers New York Times – ‎Jul 1, 2009‎ “The Obama administration began investigations of hundreds of businesses on Wednesday as part of its strategy to focus immigration.”

While employers need to be extremely cautious and take steps to ensure that their employee verification papers are in order, the government needs to fix the immigration mess BEFORE pursuing this new aggressive policy of conducting ICE AUDIT “RAIDS”. Employers should be given an opportunity to pursue a legal path for essential workers before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers come “knocking at the door.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigemploy2-2009jul02,0,7434438.story Los Angeles Times: L.A. employers face immigration audits.

Many employers are caught in a Catch-22 when it comes to employee verification. “If you’re in the roofing business, if you’re in the concrete business, you don’t have American-born workers showing up at your door … you have Hispanic workers showing up at your door, and they have what looks to be a legitimate Social Security card … under our current law, if they have a card that looks legitimate and you don’t hire them because you suspect they are illegal, then you are guilty of discrimination and could be investigated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that’s the current system and it’s broken.” Said Norman Adams, co-founder of Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy to the Houston Chronicle: Immigration crackdown goes after employers. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/6506722.html

Vigorously enforcing these laws without providing an option to employers is plain bad policy and it could make our economic situation worse. My experience with the employer verification law is most employers are simply not familiar with all aspects of the complex immigration laws. Most employers don’t know that if they question a legal worker’s documents, the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S.D.O.J.) may charge them with discrimination. The adverse impact on the economy and on the housing market could be serious. The substantial economic contribution of hard working immigrants is clear. Economic contributions of immigrants come in many forms in California. The California Immigrant Policy Center estimates that the state’s immigrants pay $30 billion in federal taxes, $5.2 billion in state income taxes, and $4.6 billion in sales taxes each year. The Selig Center for Economic Growth calculates that the purchasing power of Latino and Asian consumers in California totaled $412 billion in 2008 – nearly one-third of the state’s total purchasing power. The U.S. Census Bureau found that California businesses owned by Latinos and Asians constituted more than one-quarter of all businesses in the state as of 2002, employing 1.2 million people and generating sales and receipts of $183 billion. Where would our economy be without these immigrants? http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1981220.html Sacramento Bee: Immigrants are not a fiscal drain.

Comprehensive immigration reform requires a path to legal status for the undocumented and an orderly system for future worker flows to allow U.S. industry to innovate and compete globally. It will require a complete overhaul of the government agencies that now mismanage a slew of immigration programs that could and should be the rejuvenating lifeblood of our nation. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/opinion/lweb30dream.html New York Times: Opening a Door to Young Immigrants.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) understands the issues from a deep perspective, not merely from an emotional view. We believe that a sensible comprehensive immigration reform package will have to include smart enforcement, a path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the U.S., elimination of family and employment-based visa backlogs, adequate visas to meet the needs of U.S. families and businesses, a new visa program for essential workers to enable employers to legalize critically needed workers in agriculture, construction, and to provide future flows in certain areas including scientific fields, where as many as two thirds of our advanced degreed graduates are international students. We must also provide due process protections and restore the rule of law in immigration adjudications, and in our immigration courts. AILA Welcomes Obama’s Proactive Push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year.