[Marxism] A victory for immigrants' rights

[Greg McDonald]

At my workplace just this week management preempted the sending of no- 
match letters by the federal government and fired 12 undocumented  
workers. We're currently working to file a claim with the NLRB for  
wrongful dismissal, and to sue Canyon Ranch for discrimination due to  
national origin under Title VII. Given the victory in the courts  
detailed below, it looks like we might have a good chance of helping  
them to get their jobs back.

Greg McDonald

Crackdown on illegal immigrants loses in court

By SPENCER S. HSU
The Washington Post
Published on: 10/10/07
A federal judge barred the Bush administration Wednesday from  
launching a planned crackdown on U.S. firms that hire illegal  
immigrants, warning of its potentially "staggering" impact on law- 
abiding workers and companies.
In a firm rebuke of the White House, U.S. District Judge Charles  
Breyer of San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction against the  
president's plan to pressure employers to fire up to 8.7 million  
workers with suspect Social Security numbers, starting this fall.
President Bush made the effort the centerpiece of a re-energized  
enforcement drive against illegal immigration in August after the  
Senate rejected his proposal to overhaul immigration laws. But the  
ruling — sought by major American labor, business and farm  
organizations — highlighted the chasm that the issue has opened  
between the Republican Party and its traditional business allies.
The case also called attention to the gulf between Washington  
rhetoric about the need to curtail immigration and the economic  
reality that many U.S. employers rely on illegal labor, and to the  
government's inability over nearly three decades to develop adequate  
tools for identifying unauthorized workers.
In a 22-page ruling, Breyer said the plaintiffs — an unusual  
coalition that included the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties  
Union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — had raised serious questions  
about the legality of the administration's plan to mail Social  
Security "no-match" letters to 140,000 U.S. employers.
"There can be no doubt that the effects of the rule's implementation  
will be severe," Breyer wrote, resulting in "irreparable harm to  
innocent workers and employers."
The government letters were intended to warn employers that they must  
resolve questions about their employees' identities or fire them  
within 90 days. If they did not, employers could face "stiff  
penalties," including fines and even criminal prosecutions for  
violations of a federal law that bars employers from knowingly  
employing illegal workers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael  
Chertoff said when he announced the plan on Aug. 10.
The plaintiffs persuaded the judge that the Social Security  
Administration database includes so many errors — incorporated in  
roughly 9.5 million individuals' records in 2003 alone — that its use  
in firings would unfairly discriminate against tens of thousands of  
legal workers, including native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens,  
and cause sweeping workforce disruptions that would burden companies.
"The government's proposal to disseminate no-match letters affecting  
more than eight million workers will, under the mandated time line,  
result in the termination of employment to lawfully employed  
workers," the judge wrote. "Moreover the threat of criminal  
prosecution ... reflects a major change in DHS policy."
Breyer also concluded that the government may have ignored a 1980  
law, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, that requires it to calculate  
the cost of imposing new regulations that significantly burden small- 
business owners. Randel Johnson, a vice president of the Chamber of  
Commerce, said the ruling shows "the government cannot do anything it  
wants simply in the name of enforcement. They've got to be careful  
about building their record and complying with the law."
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said: "This is a significant step  
towards overturning this unlawful rule, which would give employers an  
even stronger way to keep workers from freely forming unions. ...  
More than 70 percent of SSA discrepancies refer to U.S. citizens."
DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff expressed disappointment at the  
decision and said the administration will continue to aggressively  
enforce immigration laws while considering an appeal that plaintiff's  
lawyers said could take at least nine months.
"Today's ruling is yet another reminder of why we need Congress to  
enact comprehensive immigration reform," Chertoff said. "The American  
people have been loud and clear about their desire to see our  
nation's immigration laws enforced."
Several analysts said the Bush administration's plan was devised to  
push business interests into the debate by demonstrating that the  
failure of legislative reforms would carry costs, and to reassure  
anti-immigration conservative lawmakers that the White House was able  
and willing to crack down on offenders.
Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and  
Naturalization Service and now a senior fellow at the Migration  
Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, said the  
ruling "shows how ineffective the current laws are."
"It reinforces the opinion that many of us hold that until you have a  
better legal framework — which requires new legislation — we're stuck  
very much with the status quo," Meissner said.
In a statement, Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., an opponent of Bush's  
approach who won election to the House last year on the issue,  
criticized the court. "What part of 'illegal' does Judge Breyer not  
understand?" he said. "At a time when the federal government is  
finally trying to enforce current immigration law, we cannot have  
activist judges stand in the way of doing what is right."
The scope of the problem is uncontested. A three-year government  
audit ending in 2001 found "widespread" misuse of Social Security  
numbers by illegal immigrants, who often present fake or fraudulent  
documents to work. Overall, 7.2 million illegal immigrants account  
for at least 10 percent of low-skilled U.S. workers, and 5 percent of  
the overall U.S. workforce, according to a Pew Hispanic Center  
analysis of 2005 U.S. Census data.
Illegal immigrants make up an even greater portion of workers in  
specific industries and service occupations, including 24 percent of  
U.S. workers in farming, 17 percent in cleaning, 14 percent in  
construction and 12 percent in food preparation. But the government's  
record in developing tools to screen such workers is spotty, largely  
because of successful efforts by resistant employers, labor unions  
and civil rights groups to water them down. (begin optional add)
A government program, begun in 1996, to verify the validity of  
workers' Social Security numbers remains voluntary and covers only  
about 23,000 of 8 million U.S. employers. It also is hampered by a  
high false-alarm rate and limited ability to detect identity theft  
that involves stolen or fraudulent numbers. Between June 2004 and May  
2006, it erroneously rejected 11 percent of foreign-born U.S.  
citizens and 1.3 percent of authorized foreign-born non-citizens,  
according to a report provided to Congress.
In protest, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, signed  
legislation in August that would bar Illinois companies from  
participating in the program until it is 99 percent accurate.
The Department of Homeland Security proposed in June 2006 to  
prosecute immigration fraud based on the Social Security no-match  
letters, and finalized its plans this summer. The AFL-CIO and ACLU  
filed suit to halt the start of mailings Sept. 4, joined later by the  
U.S. chamber and trade associations for the agriculture, restaurant  
and construction industries.
On Aug. 31, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney issued a temporary  
restraining order pending an Oct. 1 hearing before Judge Breyer, whom  
President Clinton appointed in 1997 and whose brother is U.S. Supreme  
Court Justice Stephen Breyer.