Happy new year to all, immigrant or native born. This year is bound to be interesting in my office as the presidential candidates batter around the subject of immigration while the US government continues its assault against US employer and immigrants.
Our country has needed comprehensive immigration reform for years. Actually, years and years. Mostly what Congress has done over the years is to create more restrictive laws while ignoring the pleas of US businesses for more visas to hire foreign born workers.
In response, states and cities have started to create their own mini immigration laws. Effective yesterday, employers in the state of Arizona have to comply with the most restrictive immigration law in the nation. If they are found a second time to have hired an unauthorized worker, they will lose their ability to conduct their business in the state of Arizona. There is no protection in the law for critical infrastructure, hospitals, nursing homes, nuclear power plants, etc.
Hopefully grandpa is in an Arizona institution which has no I-9 errors in its paperwork.
Also in response, the US attorneys offices (which have had their own political problems in the past couple of years) are starting to criminally prosecute the US employer around the country for the felony charges of ‘alien harboring’ and ‘money laundering’. The government is using the same techniques against the US employer which were established during the drug wars, such as sending in secret agents who are wired tapped, raiding the workplace, pressuring employees to speak against the employer by threatening family, and more. It’s all designed to frighten people and to pit employer against employee.
Consider this very real dilemna: the US employer faces enormous monetary damages if it discriminates against a foreign employee by refusing to hire or by terminating this person because of his or her foreign status. Yet the same US employer faces felony charges and enormous monetary fines if it knowingly hires undocumented workers. How can an employer be sure it is clearly walking this fine line? This is the real challenge.
The US government created a solution for this challence: an online system called “e-verify” for US employers to use to check the validity of the social security numbers of potential employees . There are problems with this solution, however. It has about a 10-15% inaccuracy rate. And to use it, the US employer is required to waive substantive rights regarding freedom from searches and seizures by allowing the government to make periodic inspections of the employers’ records.
This is not a case of the US government fighting criminals — which we all support. This is the US government fighting your neighbor. Possibly fighting you. Who is cleaning your building or house? Who landscaped your garden? Who is washing the dishes in your favorite restaurant? Have you checked the employment authorization of these individuals?
It is not far fetched to state that if our government continues in this direction, you will be responsible for using the services of any unauthorized worker without verifying his or her employment status.
Who is underlying this assault on employers and immigrants?
The main group is FAIR, which has been recently classified as a HATE group in the United States. Sounds extreme but consider that FAIR, which has many other names, is responsible for writing the 2006 ordinance for the city of Hazleton in Pennsylvania which classified certain immigrants as “illegal,” punishes landlords and employers who do business with those immigrants and makes English the official language is unconstitutional (this ordinance was struck down by a federal judge who required the government had to pay 2.4 million dollars in attorneys fees). statutehttp://www.aclupa.org/legal/legaldocket/challengetohazletonimmigra.htm
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the United States, is responsible for identifying FAIR as a hate group. It indicates in its press release that racists have found a new home in the anti-immigrant movement and that FAIR “has employed white supremacists in key leadership roles, has accepted over a million dollars from a eugenics foundation AND, as if that weren’t enough, has helped to bolster racist conspiracy theories throughout the country. . . . FAIR is the voice of individuals who have helped fuel the 40% increase in the number of hate groups in the US. . . . The most terrifying number in all of this? A 35% increase in hate crimes against latinos. There has certianly been a similar increase in hate crimes against South Asians and Arabs, and increases in hate crimes against other marginalized groups.” http://fairimmigration.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/southern-poverty-law-center-lists-fair-as-hate-group/
So, why are Americans listening to this propoganda?
My dream is to find a presidential and congressional candidate who will lead us out of this immigration nightmare towards a reality where the laws matched our labor needs and where the employer and the employee could mutually benefit each other without mistrust.
Let me know if you find one.
Peace,
Elizabeth
