Posted on 12/23/2005 5:23:41 AM PST by xzins
Employers may have to get Uncle Sam's permission to hire future workers.
That's the effect of a new requirement in the House's immigration reform bill. Two years after enactment, employers would have to submit the Social Security numbers or alien identification numbers of new hires to the federal government, which would compare these numbers to government databases. The government would then notify the employer whether the individual is eligible to work.
The provision is aimed at ending the widespread use of phony Social Security numbers by illegal immigrants looking for work in the United States.
Employers currently are required to ask prospective employees for evidence of their eligibility to work in this country, but it's often difficult to determine whether immigrants' documents are authentic.
"There are a lot of great fake IDs out there," says Kelly Knott, a lobbyist with the Associated General Contractors of America.
As a result, American businesses employ millions of illegal immigrants.
Members of Congress who want to stop the flow of illegal immigration to the United States contend that ending these foreigners' ability to find jobs here is just as important as increasing security along the nation's borders.
For employers, the proposed employee verification system "means the 'I didn't know' defense isn't going to cut it anymore," says Rep. Dan Issa, R-Calif.
System only small pilot now Business lobbyists say the employee verification system won't work. It's based on a pilot program now used by only 3,500 businesses. Making the program mandatory for all employers could cause significant problems because of the system's inability to detect identity theft, and government delays in entering and verifying data, the Government Accountability Office reports.
"Any time you take such a small program ... and expand it to millions and millions of employers, there most likely are going to be some glitches," Knott says.
Businesses are especially concerned about a requirement to check all employees' Social Security numbers -- not just new hires -- within six years. That's "an enormous undertaking," says Laura Reiff, an immigration attorney at Greenberg Traurig and co-chairwoman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition.
The House Judiciary Committee rejected an attempt to remove this requirement from the bill. Doing so would gut the bill, says committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. He says businesses that employ hundreds of illegal aliens are "21st century slave masters."
Business groups also are upset about what Sensenbrenner didn't include in his bill: a guest worker program or some other legal channel for businesses to employ more people from other countries.
Economic implications Cutting off the stream of illegal immigrants while providing no legal means to fill businesses' need for workers "seems like the perfect storm to cripple the economy," says Geoff Burr, director of legislative affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors.
"You're kissing away huge amounts of U.S. industries," says Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., citing agriculture, tourism, hospitality and construction in particular.
Business lobbyists say immigrants are needed to fill jobs that can't be filled by Americans.
That "isn't a lie, but it isn't the whole story," says Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., leader of the anti-immigration movement in the House. These businesses can't find workers "for what they're willing to pay," he says.
Even in construction, where immigrants make up one-fourth of the work force, the unemployment rate for native-born Americans is 11%, reports the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration research organization.
"There is quite a lot of unutilized labor in the United States," says Steven Camarota, director of research at CIS.
Construction industry lobbyists, however, say they've been trying for years to get young Americans interested in their profession but still face labor shortages despite an average wage of $19 an hour.
"A high school is not considered successful by how many people it sends to the construction industry," Knott says.
Senate may help businesses
Business lobbyists hope the Senate will include a guest worker program when it takes up immigration reform next year and they'll end up with a bill more to their liking.
That's exactly what Tancredo fears.
He predicts there will be "a lot of hoopla" about the House immigration bill, which was expected to pass by Dec. 16, but its enforcement provisions will be undermined by the Senate's demand for a guest worker program.
When the final bill emerges from a House-Senate conference, "it will be very, very ugly," he predicts. "I am very worried about it."
the businesses that hire illegals are every bit as guilty of weakening this country as the LIBERALS who aid and abet these people.
Name these businesses please. I want to know who to boycott.
Of course not. These HS Grads need to go to College and earn worthless degrees and become evn more indoctrinated.
FMCDH(BITS)
Slavery, indentured servants, illegal immigrants,....
America's economic engine has always needed low cost labor. None of the above are very good ways to fill this need.
Our need for labor is not sufficient cause to allow all the problems associated with illegal immigration.
I gotta call BS on this one.I know licensed electricians making $16 per hour,that have not had a pay raise in 4 years,and are in their 40's.I know some in construction (in their 40's) still making $12 per hour.Maybe somewhere across the country they make this much,but it can't be "average".
I know college graduates with years of work experience who would be perfectly happy to get a job paying $15 an hour.
What a load of horse manure! Turn the task over to Mastercard or Visa. They check millions of transactions every day. This is just a ridiculous excuse for hiring illegals because employers want cheap labor.
waaahahaaaa! (*business tears*) I have to play by the rules and hire real american citizens and pay them minimum wage!!!
I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number was in the hundreds of millions of transactions per day this time of year. And they are doing it globally!
By comparison, verifying employment will be a trivial task. In a really stellar month we create a few hundred thousand net jobs? Allowing for some hiring and firing churn I doubt it would be more than 10 million verification transactions per month.
Bump
Get in touch with your Senators early and often on this bill. Especially during it's debate and amending. Tell your Senators that you are watching closely and that this bill is very very important to you. A vote by them in the wrong way could very well change your vote. The House squirmed and so will the Senate.
As I've stated before on these threads: the HS and college kids I know need and want PT work (some of the college kids will work FT and go to school FT -- that's a heck of a work ethic).
These kids tell me illegals aleardy have the jobs the kids would ordinarily do.
I don't see the cost of houses or services declining, BTW. Landscaping? Maid or janitorial services? Laundry? I live near a 2 story hick town, and goods and services are big-city prices, despite Spanish being a 2nd language here.
The I-9 uses Social Security cards as secondary identification.
Anyone can gin-up a fake Social Security card in about 30 minutes. Scan one, change the name, print it.
For primary ID, there are all sorts of "legitimate" driver's license templates for sale on the Internet. Or one can use use a school ID (easily forged) or voter's registration (with no photo).
In the past, those businesses minimized the usage of illegal labor, plus the state/federal government did not mandate local communities to provide free medicare, welfare, in state college tuition, and other services to illegal immigrants. Today businesses see illegal immigrants as their primary source of labor and high profits, depressing the salaries of US blue collar workers. Court and government mandated services and tuition breaks for illegal immigrants are cutting into the middle class thru taxes and lowered services. I have not even talked about the quality of life issues such as crime and disease. Finally, 9/11 has changed the dynamics on illegal immigration. That is what Rep Howard Berman and the pro illegal immigrant businessmen fail to understand. The world has changed and with it the winds of politics and the will of the American voter.
Gee, while in HS and college I did dishwashing, newspaper route, janitor, construction, housepainting, window washing, jackhammering, shoveling dirt, and all kinds of other jobs "that Americans don't want to do."
I don't recall ever seeing an illegal alien at any of my workplaces.
Anyone who lives in the MacMansion developments have the income, but not the time to clean, garden and etc. They are willing to pay for these services because they have the need to save on time and the income to do so. Most of these services are operated by Americans, and they like to hire illegals because it will maximize their profit margins. There is a social price for this profitable convenience, it is called illegal immigration and all the costs that come with it (crime, health, border, security, welfare, etc) that is being borne by the US taxpayers. If this arrangement is helpful to the US, why is over 60 percent of the American population opposed to it?
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