Posted on 10/08/2007 7:24:31 AM PDT by SmithL
He hurdled over rocks and sagebrush into the United States on Sept. 2 -- about three weeks after he learned of a Bush administration plan to tackle illegal immigration through Social Security fraud.
Work would be hard to come by, but the president's plan to penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants wasn't enough to scare off the 35-year-old married father who said the federal plan actually prompted his illegal trip across the border.
The reason? He believes the plan -- stalled by a lawsuit claiming a violation of workers' rights -- will force Congress to reconsider immigration reform and open a pathway to citizenship for anyone already in the country.
He's not the only one who has sought opportunity despite the announcement of the plan in August.
Activists and illegal immigrants say the plan that has been well documented in foreign countries like Guatemala and Mexico hasn't scared anyone.
"It's not enough to force people away," said Maria Marroquin, executive director of the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, adding that illegal immigrants are willing to face almost anything to improve their lives.
"I couldn't be afraid," said Morales, a former resident of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where he earned $5 a day in the fields and now earns about $50 a day from odd jobs around the South Bay. "There's too much at stake to lose."
Katie Quan, associate chair of the University of California at Berkeley Labor Center, said she was "not surprised" that the new policy does not appear to be stopping people from crossing the border. In the past, the government has sent threatening "no match" letters to firms with employees whose Social Security numbers don't match their names, Quan said, adding the letters have little effect on the number of people who cross the border illegally.
"I think you really have to look at a variety of factors," including jobs that pull people to the U.S. and political or economic factors that push people out of their home countries, Quan said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Commerce's plan was intended to push illegal immigrants out of the country by going after the people who keep them on their payroll.
The plan, unveiled Aug. 10, focuses on the Social Security Administration's "no match" letters that are sent out each year to businesses that have several employees whose Social Security numbers don't match their names.
It's estimated that at least half -- and as many as 80 percent -- of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants living in this country have used false Social Security numbers to secure jobs.
Employers have overwhelmingly ignored the letters in the past. The plan lacked enforcement, something the latest plan aims to correct by imposing $2,200 fines on employers who do not fire workers with problem Social Security numbers within 90 days of being notified of the no-match.
The enforcement was supposed to go into effect Sept. 14, with Social Security officials sending no-match letters to 140,000 employers across the country, including 35,000 in California.
A lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other unions that cites people could wrongfully be fired has temporarily stopped the letters from going out until a judge rules on the case by mid-October.
Juan Vasquez is another newcomer from Mexico who is unafraid that he will get caught. There are ways, he said, to skirt the rules, including hopping from job to job before no-match letters are sent to avoid getting fired.
"There are always jobs out there and people willing to hire us who know that we are not in the country legally," said Vasquez, 29, who is married and has a newborn child. "We are here to work, to better, and for nothing else."
The handyman from Durango argues that even if illegal immigrants are fired, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials likely wouldn't go looking for them individually if they haven't committed serious crimes.
Privacy laws also prohibit the Social Security administration from sharing any information about employees' no-matches with immigration enforcement officials.
Eswin Cotuc, who sneaked into the U.S. from Guatemala in August, says they also could work as day laborers, who are paid in cash.
"We didn't come here to steal anything, we came here to better ourselves and to get ahead," said Cotuc, 25, a married father of two who also works odd jobs. "I'm here to make money and help my kids become something -- doctors, teachers, professionals."
Even so, advocates of stricter immigration laws say that some employers, who have ignored the laws in the past, are finally starting to come around.
There will always be "people trying to play the system, but employers are beginning to get the message," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform that advocates for tougher borders.
He points to Colorado as an example. That state imposed tough regulations on employers and fines of up to $5,000 for failing to assure that the workers they hire are in the U.S. legally.
In Colorado, where a new law also bars illegal immigrants from state services not guaranteed by the federal government (schooling and emergency medical care are guaranteed), experts have seen a drop in the immigrant workforce.
Veronica Carrizales, a labor specialist with the University of California-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, questions whether enforcement could result in some employers using termination as a way to scare employees.
"What we could see is an increase of intimidation and harassment of workers," said Carrizales, adding that immigrants -- both illegal and legal -- could become more hesitant to speak out.
But illegal immigrants remain optimistic, willing to take risks as they await laws to change.
"In my country, luck only happens to the rich -- the rest of us have to go searching for it," Morales said.
I think each Presidential candidate should be asked directly what he/she would advise Ramon Morales to do personally. Return to Mexico, stay with the hope that the U.S. will not enforce its laws, etc; with the follow-up, will they advise him not to pay taxes, etc.
And therein lies the problem. Did he come to try to better the country, as well? That is why the country exists, because those who went before him put in more than they took out. He wants to take out but put nothing in, according to his own words. That is a sure way of disassembling this country. He is doing to the US the same thing that made Mexico the mess it is today. Ramon, go home and practice making your country better instead of making our country worse.
It all comes down to will. Ike’s Operation Wetback put a huge dent in these folks with just a few hundred agents. Jorge lacks Ike’s determination. Were he to marshal the power of the federal government the problem would be substantially reduced quickly.
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