Posted on 10/12/2006 8:12:36 PM PDT by Ladycalif
Panel suggests penalties on employers State should crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants, GOP's reform team says.
By Alicia Robinson California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore leads an illegal immigration task force hearing at the Tustin community center Wednesday. TUSTIN — If a group of Republican state legislators gets its way, California will start cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.
Penalizing employers who use illegal workers was the dominant suggestion at a Wednesday hearing by a state GOP task force that aims to bring forward immigration-reform bills in 2007.
Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who is helping lead the task force, said he's already working on a system of penalties and incentives for employers based on whether they check the legal status of people they hire.
Several of the 50 people who came to the hearing at Tustin's Clifton C. Miller Community Center suggested the state should penalize businesses for employing illegal immigrants, or help businesses check employees' citizenship and give them legal aid if they get into trouble for it.
Bill Doddridge, a Tustin resident and chief executive of the Jewelry Exchange store chain, told DeVore and other GOP legislators that businesses can get squeezed from both sides when immigration issues arise.
• BREAKING NEWS Newport Beach acquires 15 acres of park land • THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE: Harman proves to be on the bill • Sanitary board races overshadowed • Irvine mayor wants talks despite lawsuit He said the federal government told him in 2002 some of his employees' Social Security numbers were invalid, and he continued to get the notices after asking employees to correct the numbers. When he began verifying the numbers, some workers quit.
As an employer, Doddridge said, he could be subject to federal fines once he knew he might be employing illegal immigrants, but if he laid off the workers, he could be sued for discrimination.
The audience, which included members of the Minuteman Project and the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, applauded Doddridge and several other panelists and was especially supportive of Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor.
advertisement
* Mansoor has gained notoriety for spearheading his city's plan to train police to check the immigration status of felony suspects.
"I believe that if the federal government and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] are serious about keeping us safe, then they need to give us the tools to do it," he said.
Audience members also suggested cutting off state-funded benefits for illegal immigrants — DeVore called them an "attractive nuisance" — and changing the state housing code section addressing overcrowding.
Rosie Avila, a Santa Ana school board member who lost a GOP primary bid for a congressional seat in June, approved of the suggestions.
She expects the immigration issue to influence voters at the November polls, she said.
"It certainly seems to get the biggest rise when you talk about issues," Avila said. "It is the debate of the moment."
A few people at the hearing worried that local enforcement of immigration laws, as Costa Mesa is proposing, will alienate the immigrant community from law enforcement.
Shiu-Ming Cheer, a program coordinator for the South Asian Network, an Artesia-based human-rights-advocacy group, suggested it could undermine the community's trust in police.
After the hearing, Cheer said she was concerned that the panelists were skewed, with no one speaking on behalf of immigrants.
About the audience proposals, she said, "I actually think some of them were quite scary."
It's hard to predict whether the state will step up enforcement of immigration laws, she said, adding, "If the state gets involved, that'll make it even more difficult for people to go about their daily lives."
What's next for DeVore's task force is drafting some legislation for when the new session begins in January. But with the Democratic majority in Sacramento unlikely to change after November, DeVore fully expects some proposals to meet the fate he predicted for one suggestion, that legislators declare a state of emergency because of open borders.
"In all likelihood we'd have about 30 seconds in committee before being voted down unceremoniously," he said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.