NEWSMAKER: LEADER SAYS ARIZONA'S IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN MUST GO ON

Associated Press
August 16, 2007

PHOENIX (AP) - The leader of Arizona's movement to get state authorities to confront illegal immigration says the fight will continue even if Congress overhauls immigration law.

State Representative Russell Pearce says the state shouldn't view its border efforts as a stopgap effort to ease immigration woes while Washington considers immigration changes. He says no limits should be put on state and local authorities looking to minimize the impact of illegal immigration.

The Mesa Republican is the author of several Arizona immigration laws, including a new law that prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

More than 500,000 illegal immigrants are believed to be living in Arizona.


On the Net:

State Rep. Russell Pearce: http://azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID45&Legislature48

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SHERIFF REACTS TO DOCTORED PHOTO
ARPAIO HIRES EXTRA SECURITY DETAIL





UPDATED: 12:00 pm PDT August 16, 2007

PHOENIX -- "Garbage."

That's how Sheriff Joe Arpaio described a doctored picture e-mailed to several media outlets showing him dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit and holding a noose to a Hispanic man's head.

The picture was distributed to some media organizations by immigrant rights advocate Elias Bermudez of Immigrants Without Borders.

Bermudez said he didn't create the photo, but forwarded the image to 50 of his friends and colleagues in the Hispanic community.

The image depicts Arpaio as a member of one of the most hated groups in history -- the KKK.

"It is a picture in bad taste," Bermudez told CBS 5 News. "It is a picture that should not be remembered."

Bermudez said the depiction is what some people are feeling with the sheriff's new anti-immigration hotline.

"It is a true depiction of how our people feel," he said. "We are just waiting to be hung by a rope."

"I'd rather have my community put out a bad tasting picture than to go out and riot and burn cars and destroy property," Bermudez said.

READ: 7/22/07 - Foes Nix Sheriff's Hotline

Arpaio said he is fearful the picture could lead to rioting and violence against him or his family.

"This is going a little too far what these people are doing," the sheriff told CBS 5 News.

"If they think they're going to scare me and take that hotline down, I don't back down," Arpaio said.

While he wouldn't elaborate on what, if any, threats have been made against him, he said for the first time he has hired an extra security detail.

Copyright 2007 by KPHO.com. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

quote:

"There are certain factions that would like me to go away," Arpaio said. "The more they go after me, the more I'm going to lock up the illegals."

So logical! The more those activists want Arpaio to lock up illegals the more they should 'go after' him. What else did they expect by doctoring a fake picture and distributing it all around?

ARKANSAS


BEEBE: IMMIGRATION INFORMATION NEEDED

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
rmoritz@arkansasnews.com

LITTLE ROCK "” Gov. Mike Beebe praised lawmakers Tuesday for tackling the illegal immigration issue in Arkansas but said more information is needed before any decisions can be made.

The House and Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committees began a dialog on the issue Monday, meeting jointly to begin laying the groundwork this summer for 2009 legislation to curb what some believe is a surge of illegal immigrants into the state.

"I think it's healthy for us to be discussing this and I think it's healthy for the committee to be providing the information, and I think it will provide a road map for what, if any, legislative changes need to be brought forth," Beebe told reporters after addressing a United Steelworkers union conference Tuesday at the Peabody Hotel.

State officials told lawmakers Monday that public secondary education and other services to immigrants, both legal and illegal, cost the state about $170 million annually.

They said state courts and police departments spent $14.7 million on immigrants, and that the state Department of Correction spent $1.8 million on illegal immigrants last year.

Beebe said Tuesday he wants to know more about those costs, acknowledging the information may be difficult to obtain.

"We've got to distinguish between legal and illegal," the governor said. "Those that are here illegally are in a different category than those that are here legally."

Officials told lawmakers Monday it is often impossible to tell whether immigrants benefiting from state services are legal or illegal.

Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, suggested education officials begin checking the Social Security cards of students to determine their legal status, an idea the governor said the state should consider.

"I think that's an option to look at," Beebe said. "Apparently, currently most of the information should or would be available."

Green said Tuesday he was "thrilled that the governor is satisfied with what we are doing."

"We need the attention from the executive branch as well as the legislative branch," he said.

Green said the state agencies committees planned to meet again next month to continue their discussion on illegal immigration in the state. He said officials with the state Department of Human Services are expected to brief members about the health care costs associated with immigrants in Arkansas.

Also expected to attend the meeting and testify are officials with the state police and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

CONNECTICUT, NEW HAVEN


IMMIGRANT GROUP TAKES FEDS TO COURT




Melissa Bailey Photo/In attempt to force federal immigration authorities to disclose information on the June 6 raids in New Haven, two immigrant rights groups have filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

New Haven Independent
by Melissa Bailey
August 10, 2007

On behalf of JUNTA for Progressive Action and Unidad Latina en Acción, Yale Law School attorneys filed the suit under the Freedom of Information Act in New Haven U.S. District Court Friday. Click here to read the suit.

JUNTA and ULA said they are concerned the raids were a "retaliation" against the city:
Less than two days after the city approved an immigrant-friendly ID plan, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents swept through Fair Haven on June 6, arresting 29 undocumented immigrants. Mayor John DeStefano expressed similar concerns at the time, lashing out against the feds for "targeting" New Haven and allegedly violating immigrants' civil rights. Raids were subsequently suspended.

In the suit, JUNTA and ULA say DHS has failed to respond in a timely manner to two Freedom of Information requests filed on June 26: One sought records regarding the planning of the raids; the other sought any agency correspondence mentioning the municipal ID program. Under the federal FOIA act, agencies have 20 days to respond to requests, with a possible 10-day extension.

The raids "greatly shook the stability and safety that we strive to create in New Haven," said JUNTA's Laura Huizar (pictured above at right). The information requested would allow the groups to "ensure that the rights of our immigrant neighbors were not violated," she said at a press conference outside New Haven's federal courthouse Friday.

"If we live in a democracy, there has to be complete transparency as to how the government acts in relation to the community," said John Jairo Lugo (pictured above at left), director of ULA.

In a June 29 letter, ICE acknowledged receipt of one of the FOIA requests and pledged prompt response: "ICE currently has a FOIA backlog, however, we are working expeditiously to eliminate this backlog," the letter reads. "Due to the multi-track processing, your case will not fall within this backlog." But over 30 days passed and JUNTA and ULA never received a further response from ICE.

In the lawsuit, JUNTA and ULA call for the federal court to step in and order ICE to hand over the information.

ICE spokesman Michael Keegan declined comment on the suit, saying only "ICE's policy is not to comment on pending litigation or the review process of a FOIA request."

ID Plan Attacks Continue

Meanwhile, anti-illegal immigrant activist Paul Streitz Friday called for the state to take illegal immigration into its own hands.

Undocumented immigrants charged with a felony should be held without bail until deportation, suggested Streitz -- click here to read his letter to the governor and state legislators.

Streitz' letter also included this New Haven reference: "Inducing any illegal alien to enter, reside or work in the United States--ID Cards for illegal aliens and creation of pick-up zones for illegal workers will be deemed such an inducement--shall be a felony in the State of Connecticut."

Asianjournal.com


CRACKDOWN ON UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS BEGINS


Joseph Pimentel
Asianjournal.com
August 13, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency are stepping up efforts to enforce work-site violations. Employers face stiffer penalties if found hiring undocumented workers.

Under a new federal guideline, an employer is obligated to re-verify an employee's work authorization and identity if they receive a "no-match" letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) questioning the employee's name and/or tax records, or a notice from DHS that the employee does not match its records.

If within 60 days, the no-match is not resolved and the employer cannot verify the work authorization and identity of the employee, the employer must choose to either fire the employee or face penalties assessed by DHS.

An Associated Press report stated that employers who don't comply could face fines of $250 to $10,000 per illegal worker and incident.

ICE could also use the receipt of either of these letters as evidence that the employer has "constructive knowledge" that an employee is unauthorized to work and is therefore, in violation of immigration laws, according to the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).

"If the employees Wage and Tax statement [W-2 form] do not accurately match what the social security administration has on their record, they will generate a no-match," said Sarah Sadhwani, Asian Pacific American Legal Center's (APALC) Immigration Director. "What these new regulations are saying is that it lays out the scenario that employers can fire an employee that receives a no-match letter."

Flawed System

Sadhwani said the current employment verification system is flawed.

An unreported change of name, typographical errors, misspellings, Latino and Filipino immigrants having two surnames,

Asians like Chinese or Korean having an American and a foreign name, clerical errors, and other reasons are among the problems that a no-match letter can be given to anyone.

"Sometimes, your work authorization papers will have one name, social security will have a different name, and/ or driver's license will have something else," she added.

Sadhwani is concerned that these new regulations open more power for employers without creating the proper protection for the employee.

"This is the pattern that we have seen. Employment verification leads to discrimination in the workplace."

"Another concern is it sets up a very unfortunate and somewhat scary relationship between the DHS and SSA to be sharing information," she said. "That is a very bold step in a very unfortunate direction."

For years, privacy laws have protected employers and employees from sharing the information with government agencies, particularly in the event that a no-match letters is sent by the SSA.

However, DHS and ICE officials said a no-match letter might be one of the only indicators to an employer that one of its employees may be an unauthorized worker.

"Most employers want to comply with our nation's immigration laws," said Julie Myers, ICE Assistant Secretary in a prepared statement. "Yet, everyday they are confronted with illegal aliens attempting to secure jobs through fraudulent means, including the presentation of counterfeit documents and stolen identities. Employers are not trained or obligated to be document detectives."

DHS also created a "Safe Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter" to safeguard employers in the event they receive one. Employers who do not follow it will face prosecution.

DHS & ICE Go Tough

"ICE is going to be tough and aggressive in the enforcement of the law," said Russ Knocke, a DHS Spokesman in the Associated Press report. "You are going to see more work site cases. And no more excuses."

Although the new regulation is not a federal law, the DHS is an administrative body through which the executive branch implements the regulations. The DHS is given free rein on how it carries out the law in accordance with an Act of Congress that mandates employee verification.

Introduced in June 2006, the new DHS regulation lay in the backburner as Congress continued efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the US. When the bill died in the Senate, provisions like the temporary worker program and employer verification went down along with it.

Consequence of Immigration Reform Bill's Breakdown

Critics see this new regulation as a reaction to the failure of the US to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill.
Jon Melegrito, National Federation of Filipino-American Association (NAFFAA) Executive Director, said this regulation impacts the estimated 500,000 undocumented Filipinos living and working in the US.

"This is something that we [NAFFAA] are opposed to," said Melegrito. "This is just another extension of the Bush Administration targeting minorities. This is a reaction from the failure of the US government to not pass comprehensive immigration reform."

Melegrito said the ICE's effort to increase work-site raids "will create more tension in the minority community and continue to feed to the public's xenophobic frenzy."

"The government's failure to fix our broken immigration system has led to these draconian measures."

(www.asianjournal.com)

IMMIGRATION AGENTS PUT HEAT ON EMPLOYERS
BUT WITH CRACKDOWN, SOME WORRY WHERE NEW WORKERS WILL COME FROM


U.S. News & World Report
By Emma Schwartz
Posted 8/14/07

Congress tried and failed to pass immigration reform. But that hasn't stopped the Department of Homeland Security from pushing ahead with its own plan to deal with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants inside the United States.

The department's focus: employers. New rules that go into effect in the next month increase the burden"”and penalties"”for companies that continue to employ illegal immigrants.

The heightened enforcement activity targeting employers is part of a broader DHS effort to crack down amid growing concern nationwide over the flood of migrants in recent years"”and the failed congressional attempt to revamp the system. But the new rules could hurt companies in a wide range of industries as many are forced to lay off workers in the coming months"”a move that could stir up tensions between business, law enforcement, and immigration advocates.

Since the creation of DHS, the number of workplace raids has soared. Last year alone, the department arrested 300 percent more workers and employers than in the previous year. DHS plans to continue these raids but the new rules forcing employers to take pre-emptive action are an acknowledgement that raids alone cannot reach all migrants.

The most significant concern for employers is the no-match letters, which the Social Security Administration sends out to companies if their employees' Social Security numbers appear inaccurate. The agency is expected to send out many new notices in the coming months; the new rules boost penalties by 25 percent for employers that fail to fire such employees"”or validate their status"”within 90 days. The rules also require that government contractors sign up for the Basic Pilot Program, a system that verifies whether a prospective employee's work documents match a legitimate Social Security number.

For DHS, the focus on employers is crucial tool to address the root cause of what draws illegal migrants to the United States: higher-paying jobs. "These guidelines will make it more difficult for illegal aliens to use a fraudulent Social Security number to get a job," Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said at a recent press conference. "And it will help employers take appropriate action to protect themselves."

Chertoff acknowledged that the department's enforcement options remain limited because of Congress's failure to pass immigration reform. But he said that the agency was trying to help businesses find legal labor by looking into ways to make the agricultural guest worker program less cumbersome.

That is little consolation to companies that could be forced to lay off a significant number of workers when the letters arrive; it is widely acknowledged that a hefty percentage of workers in industries like agriculture and hospitality are illegal. Immigration lawyers say companies are worried that it will be difficult to replace these workers with U.S. citizens or migrants here legally.

And they note that getting names checked through the Basic Pilot Program hasn't stopped all problems. Swift & Co., a meatpacking company that had 1,200 of its employees arrested in December, had already participated in the program before the raid.

"Until we get to the age of Jack Bauer and we have retina scans, there is no way for the employer to tell you who exactly is standing in front of them," says Eileen Scoefield, an immigrant attorney in Atlanta. "Employers still hold this vulnerability."

To understand the fear facing employers, just ask Maureen Torrey, an 11th-generation farmer in western New York. One morning last fall, her farm was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. She says they arrested 27 of her 400 farm workers. She wasn't able to rehire new workers for the harvesting season and lost an estimated $2 million in crops"”20 percent of her usual revenues.

The raid worried local banking officials like James Fulmer, chairman of the Bank of Castile, based in Batavia, N.Y. Now that more farms could be forced to lay off more workers, he says he's going to require that companies create a backup plan in the event they receive no-match letters. But he's concerned rehiring won't be easy.

"We have very low unemployment here, so the fact is: Where are these people going to come from?" he says.

CRIMINALIZING IMMIGRANTS MAKES THEM EASIER TO DEPORT

New America Media
Commentary
Paromita Shah
Aug 10, 2007

Editor's Note: The current spate of immigration raids and harsh ordinances did not come out of the blue but is the fruition of the careful build-up of an immigration law enforcement infrastructure for over a decade. Paromita Shah is associate director of the National Immigration Project (NIP) of the National Lawyers Guild. NIP is a member of Detention Watch Network, a national coalition working to reform the U.S. immigration detention system. IMMIGRATION MATTERS regularly features the views of the nation's leading immigrant rights advocates.

Immigration reform is dead – at least for the time being – but more raids, detentions and deportations continue.

But we also face a new emerging "deportation" strategy – one from local and state governments that seek to pass laws that essentially "deport" immigrants from the towns and the states in which they live.

The concept is simple: pass laws that make the lives of immigrants so miserable that they will be forced to leave, turning them into internal deportees in the United States.

According to the Washington Post, state and local governments have filed over 1,000 such bills. While most empower local police to act as immigration agents, a significant number obstruct immigrants' ability to obtain jobs, use necessary medical services, send children to public schools, find housing, get driver's licenses and receive many other government services. For example, the notorious Hazelton town ordinance required tenants obtain an occupancy permit from the city before renting a unit. One had to prove lawful residence or citizenship to get the permit. The town imposed hefty fines, $1,000, for violation of the ordinance.

The analogy to Jim Crow laws is inescapable. Towns like Hazelton complain of overcrowding, crime and strained resources, much like proponents of Jim Crow laws did when they oppressed and discriminated against African-Americans. Fortunately, late last month, a federal judge declared the Hazelton ordinance unconstitutional because it would have violated due process and interfered with federal law. It also fragmented a community and polarized it along color lines, not immigration ones. The 200-page decision contained excruciating detail about how U.S. citizen Latinos were harassed by Hazelton residents with the introduction of these ordinances.

Did all this come out of nowhere? Not really. In Operation Endgame, ICE's national strategic plan, collaboration and memoranda of agreements (MOAs) with local law, enforcement comprises a major role in immigration enforcement. Since the 2002 MOA with Florida State Police, at least a dozen police departments have signed MOAs with ICE and dozens more are asking for information. These partnerships have fostered sentiments that local and state governments should control immigration and immigrants. The Hazeltons of the country seek to take advantage of the vast immigration enforcement structure assembled over the past decade by enmeshing immigrants in the criminal justice system. By turning more immigrants into criminals, immigration authorities can deport them more easily.

Any advocacy plan must include an education around the detention and deportation system. Understanding it provides critical tools for fighting threats of deportation or deportation itself. Organizations around the country knowledgeable of deportation defense advocacy and the detention system have created resources and trainings precisely for this purpose. Some of them include Families for Freedom Detention Watch Network, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, National Day Laborers and Organizing Network, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Rights Working Group.

At this very moment, federal counterparts of local anti-immigrant ordinances percolate in Congress –tacked on to an unrelated DHS appropriations bill. The fear of deportation and discrimination underlie the desperation within communities facing anti-immigrant ordinances. There is no doubt that the fight against anti-immigrant ordinances has a direct impact on the national advocacy and dialogue on enforcement and immigration reform in the future. But that desperation alone should not become the starting point of the debate around immigration reform.

AP ENTERPRISE: US CENSUS BUREAU TO ASK IMMIGRATION AGENCY TO HALT RAIDS DURING 2010 TALLY



The Associated Press
August 16, 2007

WASHINGTON: The Census Bureau wants immigration agents to suspend enforcement raids during the 2010 census so the government can obtain an accurate count of illegal immigrants.

Raids during the population count would make an already distrustful group even less likely to cooperate with government workers who are supposed to include them, the Census Bureau's second-ranking official said in an Associated Press interview.

The Constitution requires a head count of U.S. residents every 10 years. The government uses the figures to apportion each state's seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and to appropriate billions of dollars in federal spending each year. House representation is based on population, but each state has two senators.

Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite said immigration enforcement officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census. He said, however, that today's political climate is more volatile than then on illegal immigration.

Enforcement agents "have a job to do," Waite said. "They may not be able to give us as much of a break" in 2010.

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An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman would not say whether immigration officials were willing to halt raids. "If we were, we wouldn't talk about it," Pat Reilly said.

"For us to suspend that enforcement would probably take a lot more than one meeting," Reilly said. "We would have to discuss this at the highest levels of both agencies."

The Constitution requires the Census Bureau to count everyone, including illegal immigrants, in the census.

The problem arises as the United States struggles to resolve the fate of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. After Congress failed to pass an immigration overhaul sought by President George W. Bush, the Bush administration said last week it would step up efforts to enforce immigration laws.

One Republican lawmaker said she thinks "it's nuts" for the Census Bureau to ask for a break in enforcement.

"I don't know what country the Census Bureau is living in," Rep. Candice Miller said in a telephone interview from her district in Michigan, a state that borders Canada. "I can tell them the American people have grown sick and tired of their immigration laws not being enforced. They are not going to tolerate enforcement being suspended for any amount of time."

Miller has introduced a constitutional amendment that would apportion seats in Congress based only on the number of U.S. citizens in each state.

The Census Bureau plans to approach all federal agencies for help in getting an accurate count, Waite said.

Illegal immigrants are notoriously hard to count, although outside experts estimate that census workers count 85 percent to 90 percent of them.

Census workers ask immigrants if they are citizens; they do not ask if they are in the country legally.

"We're supposed to count every resident. If you go out and ask, 'Are you here illegally?' they are going to run," said Kenneth Prewitt, who directed the Census Bureau during the 2000 census.

Prewitt said the public already is suspicious of government workers knocking on their doors and asking personal questions. Those suspicions are amplified among illegal immigrants, even though personal information collected by Census Bureau is private by law.

Prewitt said immigration officials informally agreed to cooperate with the Census Bureau during the 2000 census by not conducting large-scale raids.

"If they had a reason to think it was important to carry out an action, they would have done so," Prewitt said. "But they did offer to cooperate as much as possible so they didn't create a climate of fear. They did not carry out any major raids."

Reilly, the immigration enforcement spokeswoman, said she could not confirm any informal agreements to scale back enforcement during the 2000 census.

She said the agency "continued to perform its duty to enforce the nation's immigration laws by continuing to investigate, pursue and arrest criminal and other egregious violators."

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said the intense debate over immigration has made immigrants even more suspicious of the government today.

"The Census Bureau has a job to do," said Vargas, who belongs to a committee that advises the bureau on the 2010 census. "They need to convince people that they need to report themselves to the federal government and that it's going to remain confidential. That's a hard sell."

Supporters of stricter immigration laws said the whole discussion of suspending raids shows that the immigration system is broken.

"If you don't enforce your laws, this is what you are going to get, one agency asking another agency to subvert the law," said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates stricter enforcement of immigration laws.

ILLEGAL WORKER PLAN HAS HOLES
BUSH CRACKDOWN TOUGH TO ENFORCE

By Javier Erik Olveraand Lisa Friedman
MediaNews
Article Launched: 08/17/2007

A week after unveiling a major crackdown on businesses that hire illegal immigrants, the Bush administration is now conceding that its most heavily touted weapon in pursuing employers - an assault against Social Security fraud - will be nearly useless.

That's because when the Social Security Administration warns employers about bogus identification numbers, it remains barred from also alerting the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that's supposed to hand out penalties.

In addition, federal promises to hold companies responsible for hiring illegal immigrants could potentially be stymied by several other issues: Employers are still not required to check a new employee's Social Security number against a free federal database; there could be long gaps between when an employee is hired and when the warnings are issued each year; and there is no way to follow up on employees who have been fired. In many cases, illegal workers could still hop from job to job without being caught.

The only way authorities can punish an employer - with fines or criminal charges - is if someone first tips them off about potential fraud and then, during the course of the investigation, they discover evidence that Social Security warnings have been ignored.

"There are a number of people who do come forward and tell us an employer is not conforming with the law," said Veronica Valdez, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. "While we don't get information

directly from the Social Security Administration, we do see that we get a lot of tips."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the department's investigative branch, will aggressively work off such tips - using, among other tactics, raids - with an eye for those who are knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.

Although immigration authorities and some lawmakers say the enforcement may make a difference, those who have been up in arms over the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the country say they feel bamboozled.

`I don't believe it'

Jeff Wilson, a Bay Area resident clamoring for tougher immigration enforcement, was skeptical when he heard last week about the boosted enforcement, which calls for higher fines for employers who don't fire employees within 90 days if the workers are caught using bogus Social Security numbers.

"When I hear about anything the Bush administration is going to do, I don't believe it," said Wilson, who operates an anti-illegal-immigration Web site. "I think it was simply to look good. I believe in action - not words."

Advocates for immigrant rights also have taken issue with the crackdown, calling it a "scare tactic" to encourage people to return to their home countries or risk being found out by their employers.

"A lot of people may not think it's not worth staying here," said Salvador Bustamante, Northern California director of Strengthening Our Lives, which encourages civic participation among immigrants. "I think it's just a scare tactic."

Within the next few weeks, the Social Security Administration nationally will send out about 140,000 warnings - or so-called "no match" letters - to businesses with at least 10 employees whose numbers can't be verified. About 35,000 of those will go to employers in California.

The envelopes will include a separate letter from the Department Homeland Security informing companies that they may be in violation of immigration law and have 90 days to verify the employees' identities.

If they do not, the letter warns, the agency may "determine that you have violated the law by knowingly continuing to employ an unauthorized person." A first-offense fine was increased to $2,200 for each employee.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that the agency will clamp down on employers who knowingly and willfully violate the law. Left untouched, however, was Section 6103 of the IRS code - a privacy provision the government has long interpreted to mean that the Social Security Administration is forbidden from sharing tax information with other agencies.

Attempted fix

Several members of Congress, including Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, have tried to amend the provision. Most recently the failed Senate immigration bill, which also would have granted eventual citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, sought to fix it.

"It would make it a lot easier," Valdez said.

Still, leaders of California industries that rely heavily on illegal labor, like agriculture and restaurants, say they aren't taking any chances. Trade groups that represent the sectors said they have strongly recommended that employers follow the new rules, regardless of the government's ability to trace its own threats.

"This is another tool in their kit," said John ***, top lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association. The group represents about 1.4 million estimated employees in California, though it claims not to know how many are illegal immigrants. "It's easier to establish a violation with these rules."

Tom Nassif, president of the Western Growers Association, said he believes the new rules will cripple California's $32 billion agricultural industry. About 70 percent of the state's estimated 450,000 farm workers during the peak harvest season are illegal immigrants, and Nassif believes most if not all will be fired by fearful employers.

"With that dramatic a loss, I think people stop producing," he said.


Contact Javier Erik Olvera at jolvera@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5704.

BUSH IMMIGRATION PLAN CALLED USELESS
EMPTY THREATS

SECTION 6103 IRS CODE LEFT UNTOUCHED

Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau
Article Launched: 08/17/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

WASHINGTON - Days after unveiling a major crackdown on businesses that hire illegal immigrants, the Bush administration has quietly acknowledged that its most heavily touted weapon in pursuing employers will be virtually useless.

At the heart of the new rules announced this past week is toughened Homeland Security Department enforcement of so-called "no match" letters - which the Social Security Administration sends to companies when employees have questionable identification numbers.

But Homeland Security Department officials acknowledged that a privacy provision in the IRS code prevents immigration officials from actually knowing which employers have received "no match" letters, which have complied with the regulations and which have not.

"While we don't get information directly from the Social Security Administration, we do see that we get a lot of tips. There are a number of people that do come forward and tell us an employer is not conforming with the law," said Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Veronica Nun Valdez.

In addition to working with informants, Valdez said immigration officials plan to step up investigations and raids, which will likely yield sanctions against violating companies.
But illegal-immigration hardliners said they feel bamboozled.

Many noted that working with tips and increasing raids is nothing new, and they said they had assumed that the government had resolved the longstanding data-sharing issue.

Bob Dane said that without the Homeland Security Department being able to get information directly from the Social Security Administration, the new rules are just "empty threats."

"Good God, if they're going to spend money on postage and send out threatening letters, which are long overdue, they need to have some practical enforcement at the end," he said.

Since 1994, the Social Security Administration has sent out the annual letters to companies when a large number of W-2 forms submitted for employees don't match the name or Social Security number the agency has on file.

While there can be several reasons for a "no match," activists note it is often a red flag that a worker is an illegal immigrant.

In the past, companies have largely ignored the letters and "thrown them in the circular file," as Dane describes it.

But the new immigration rules the White House rolled out last week promised serious changes.

Starting next month, Social Security officials will send out about 140,000 "no match" letters, with about 35,474 going to employers in California.

The envelopes will include a separate letter from Homeland Security Department officials informing companies that they may be in violation of immigration law and have 90 days to correct the Social Security inconsistencies.

If they do not, the letter warns, the agency may "determine that you have violated the law by knowingly continuing to employ an unauthorized person."

A first-offense fine was increased to $2,200 per employee.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff proclaimed the move means the agency will "clamp down on employers who knowingly and willfully violate the law." Editorial pages across the country proclaimed a new day for immigration enforcement.

Left untouched, however, was Section 6103 of the IRS Code - a privacy provision the government has long interpreted to mean that Social Security officials are forbidden from sharing tax information with other agencies.

Several members of Congress, including Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, have tried to amend the provision. Most recently the failed Senate immigration bill, which also would have granted citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, sought to fix it.

"It would make it a lot easier," Valdez said.

But without that change - like traffic cops with a stack of tickets but no map to the highway - the Homeland Security Department can only ask Social Security officials to insert its warnings into the "no match " letters.

"So the most meaningful part of this new initiative may not be so meaningful," said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center of Immigration Studies, which advocates restriction of all immigration.

"That's not surprising," he said. "The administration has never shown a great desire to enforce the law."

Still, leaders with California industries - such as agriculture and food services, which rely heavily on illegal labor - said they aren't taking any chances.

Trade groups that represent the sectors said they have strongly recommended employers follow the new rules, regardless of the government's ability to trace its own threats.

"I think this is viewed as more of a self-enforcing thing," said John ***, top lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association, which represents about 1.4million employees in California.

"This is another tool in their kit. It's easier to establish a violation with these rules," *** said.

Tom Nassif, president of the California Growers Association, pointed out that any "no-match" letters a company receives will come out during a civil trial if that business is ever cited for immigration violations.

And if the company has not complied, it could face the tough new financial and prison penalties.

"We could be targets for these investigations. It behooves us to do what we can to follow them," Nassif said.

Nassif said he still believes the new rules will cripple California's $37billion agricultural industry. About 70 percent of the state's estimated 500,000 farmworkers are illegal immigrants, he said, and he believes most will be fired by fearful employers.

"With that dramatic a loss, I think people will stop producing," he said.

Camarota said he suspects the Bush administration hopes that the business community, whose division over the recent Senate immigration compromise bill helped lead to its failure, will be galvanized into action by the threat of economic upheaval.

"They don't really want to upset the apple cart, they just want to tip it back and forth, and act like they're doing something," Camarota said of the administration's rules.

"What they really want to do is get the business community off the dime," he said.

Nassif agreed, but called it a risky gamble with the country's economy.

"I think they want the public to be so damaged and so fearful that they raise a clamor," he said.

But, Nassif added, "This is playing Russian Roulette. If that gambit doesn't work, then the blood will continue to flow."

HUMOR

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION SPREADS SOUTHWARD TO MEXICO


This man is not pedaling

Southeastern Mexico (Scientific UnAmerican) -

The influx of undocumented Mexicans to the US is actually vacuum-dragging other illegal immigrants into Mexico.

"It's quite a simple process," explained physicist Carl Say-Again. "A lower pressure area develops as less mass is present, thereby creating a suction effect that pulls poor, loose people from Central America, Cuba and Jamaica into Mexico. Allow me to demonstrate."

Mr. Say-Again then went on to show the phenomenon step-by-step as a hapless Guatemalan on a bicycle was involuntarily relocated to Mexico.

"Don't worry. He will be fine. As soon as he gets his bearings he should have no problem finding a new family and a new life for himself."

Mexican authorities refused to comment on-the-record (but off-the-record they said that they are looking into numerous Chinese-made tire puncture products).