This is a pretty good op-ed piece on the immigration battle.


HAVING FAILED at comprehensive immigration reform, the Bush administration is on its way to failing at piecemeal immigration reform. Its new get-tough approach, unveiled in the summer, aims to deter unlawful entry to the country by forcing employers to fire illegal immigrants on their payrolls. The policy is a prescription for social, economic and bureaucratic mayhem masquerading as muscular enforcement. No wonder it has succeeded in uniting labor, business and civil rights groups in opposition to it.

At the heart of the administration's new strategy is a plan to use government data to identify undocumented workers who have provided their employers with fraudulent Social Security numbers to qualify for a job. On identifying these "no-match" employees, the government would alert employers, who would then have 90 days either to fire the workers in question or face hefty fines.


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On identifying these "no-match" employees, the government would alert employers, who would then have 90 days either to fire the workers in question or face hefty fines.

The government is shifting the burden to employeers when it's their job to police immigrants.

They want someone else to do their job and then if it goes well it will be the Repubs that did the good thing.

I don't see chaos. What I see is employers and illegal aliens finally being made to atone for their crimes. Employers should be verifying that they are not hiring criminals (stolen SS numbers? Aren't citizens jailed for that?). Employers should be heavily fined and in cases of fraud/intentional hiring despite evidence of illegal status, jail time for the employer. When a raid last year took illegals off the books, (the company had divested itself of Americans in order to pay a lot less in wages etc.), the Americans were lined up down the street to apply for the now available positions. I'm so tired of seeing good jobs become garbage simply because employers aren't required to be the "illegal police" as they should be. If companies can do criminal background checks (something they do as a matter of course now), then just what is the problem with verifying that the person you hire is a citizen and is not committing a crime (ID fraud etc). I don't understand those who scream discrimination every time the law is brought to bear upon those who continue to flagrantly ignore it. Rallying down street with banners declaring you have rights when you are not a citizen, doesn't change your status. You are illegal, you have no rights. It's just that simple. If you have a family here and have to leave them behind or take them with you........you've created that situation and frankly, our government is not responsible for that behavior nor should we be bending over because a walk-over decided to break the law.

But there are other reasons why one might have a mismatched social security number than working in the U.S. illegally .

But even if you don't care about the potential for harm this would do to families who lose a breadwinner due to a bureaucratic mistake, think of what it would do to the economy of, say, California. If every single undocumented worker here were to suddenly be out of a job, it would bring food production in this state to a standstill, which the rest of the country couldn't afford. It would drive up food prices in the west and across the states. The food not already harvested would rot in the fields, causing large agribusiness companies to post huge losses, which would also lower the tax revenues to the surrounding communities, and on and on and on. And it wouldn't end there. Hotels, restaurants, construction companies, landscapers, etc. up and down the state would be paralyzed.

Think also about this: Every undocumented worker who uses a false social security number is presumably still having income tax withheld, and definitely contributes to sales tax. At the local level, they spend money in the community. They bring federal dollars into the local schools by their children's attendance, which benefits all students. Think of the schools you've grown up in and/or lived around. Which schools had more resources and better playground equipment and books, the schools with 100 students or the schools with 300 or more?

Maybe that nice couple down the street (U.S. citizens) depend on an undocumented worker for cheaper child care. The point is, they are here and they contribute to the community. Remember our Founding Fathers--slave owners, tax evaders and illegal aliens. We could do a lot worse. Just ask the Native Americans.

I'm with Ron Paul. We need to remove the incentives (ie the welfare state) for the 'aliens' to come here rather than shipping them back, otherwise they'll just keep coming back. Do farmers have to verify social security numbers? And can't they just pay in cash?

Why does the government insist on using SSNs? If it is just a supplemental retirement fund why is it used to identify me? Why do I need to be identified in order to work? Does the government really need to know who I am in order for me to work on a farm or do electrical work or to mop the floor?