Immigration nonsense returns

Is it any surprise that the industries relying on undocumented workers aren't thrilled by the government's hard-headed orders to have business owners play immigration cops? We're talking about all the usual suspects - restaurants, farms, construction - that rely on newly arrived immigrants as a source of low-skilled labor. Industry reps told the LAT - quite sensibly by the way - that the government’s plan makes little sense and would throw a monkey wrench into their workforces. Mouthpieces from the Department of Homeland Security - where the plan was hatched - blindly insist that the feds are determined to enforce immigration laws, no matter what those bidness folks say. Of course, when you realize how they intend to be more vigilant… well, remember this year's passport fiasco? Yup, same brainpower.

The department is about to issue new rules that would essentially require companies to be a lot more aggressive in sniffing out illegal workers. Tax records will be used for the sniffing - a fine idea in concept, but quite impractical in application. You see, tax records don't always tell you much because the errors can be benign - misspellings or incorrect birthdates in records of citizens or legal immigrants. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, there are errors in the records of an estimated 12.7 million U.S. citizens alone. Here's more from the Times:

Officials say the new rule will provide clarity for companies that have said they didn't know what to do when the Social Security Administration sent letters indicating inconsistencies in a worker's records. The administration also sees these "no-match" letters as a way to target illegal immigrants and employers of those who make up Social Security numbers or use other people's. "Last year, out of 250 million wage reports that the SSA received, as many as 10% belonged to employees whose name doesn't match their Social Security records," said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke. "That doesn't necessarily indicate a modest clerical error; it's indicative of a broader, widespread problem. The rule fixes that and tells employers there are no more excuses."