{The part I agree with is that if there were no jobs available for illegal immigrants there would be little reason for Mexicans to come here here illegally.}
Not so fast. While there are a few businesses that intentionally exploit illegal workers, most are honest but helpless to stop it. For example, when we hire construction laborers, if they provide proof of identity and a SS#, we cannot deny them employment based on their legal status. Further, it is illegal to investigate the authenticity of the documentation they present. A company would have to start a policy of background checks on all employees to stop it. Some already do. But it is cost prohibitive to do background checks in industries where profits are tight, risk is high and wages are low.
There is a way to double check the SSN and name to make sure they match, and you can check other immigration documents against other fed info.
It's a federal database, now optional for employers (I forget the name offhand). It shouldn't be.
In Florida I think a true reform of worker's compensation would make a difference in the hiring practices of the Construction industry.
Cry me a river. Your statement above screams like an admission ticket to cross the border and come work for YOU.
Thats a copout and you know it everything you need is on one national data base or another. Sounds like you don't want to take the time to ensure you are hiring legals or do they come higher.
That is not even close to true. You need to do a little research on the "Basic Pilot Project". President Bush made reference to it in his speech the other day. It is available to all employers nationwide. Unfortunately it is optional and President Bush made no mention of making it mandatory which provides a pretty good clue that he is not serious about fixing this problem. The employers who should be using it, like construction companies, are the ones who are opting not to use it.
The Basic Pilot Project allows any employer to make a 60 second phone call (that is not an expensive background check) to determine if a potential employee's social security number is valid and whether the number matches the name given by the employee. I believe this service is also available through the internet. It is completely legal to deny employment on the basis of this simple and very cheap check as long as it is done in a nondiscriminatory manner. It would be discriminatory to employ white people who failed this check and deny employment to Hispanics who failed it but so long as you deny everybody employment whose name does not match their social security number it is legal.
The very simple check provided by the Basic Pilot Project would stop a great deal of illegal employment because most illegals are using fake social security cards where somebody just made up a number and they have no idea what name goes with that number or if that person is dead, retired, working or even not yet born.
If we were serious about solving this problem, employers would be held strictly liable for the legal status of their employees and the only safe harbor they would be given from prosecution if one is found in their employee is that they utilized the Basic Pilot Project when he was hired.
Isn't difficult to check out their documentation. When 12 of the show up with the same SS# everyone should sense something is wrong.
Stiff fines for first violation then jail time for the next.
I don't care how they do it but get all of them out of this country. Illegal immigrants are the ones exploiting this country. Get them all out now!
I don't believe that. Prove it.
Then the government should make it easy to check ID. That's part of the problem, the government doesn't want to stop illegal immigration because most of the employers who hire illegals are big supporters (read $$$) of the president and GOP Congressmen. Bush and the GOP need to be representing ALL their constituents on this issue, not just the ones who contribute the most $$$.
"it is cost prohibitive to do background checks in industries where profits are tight, risk is high and wages are low."
This is the crux of this issue. The Gov. needs to provide a simple, cheap way to ID workers, and then provide the legal framework, incentives and resources to enforce the law. All the focus has been on amnesty and a wall. Both pale in comparison to the effectiveness of widespread employer based enforcement.