Posted on 08/06/2007 8:32:12 PM PDT by hoppity
The president of the Ventura County Agricultural Association said new rules the Bush administration will soon impose in an effort to crack down on illegal immigrants will put a stranglehold on local growers.
The rules, which will force employers to fire workers with questionable Social Security numbers, will act as a "noose around agriculture's neck," said President Rob Roy.
The Department of Homeland Security will soon make public the new regulations for employers who are notified when a worker's name or Social Security number is flagged by the Social Security Administration.
The rule as drafted requires employers to fire people who can't be verified as legal workers and can't resolve within 60 days why the names or Social Security numbers on their W-2 forms don't match the government's database.
Employers who don't comply could face fines of $250 to $10,000 per illegal worker and incident.
"There's a lot of fear and anxiety about what this rule is going to mean, particularly in the agricultural sector," said Craig Regelbrugge, spokesman for the American Nursery and Landscape Association and co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform.
"The agricultural industry was hoping that this rule would be resolved in the context of comprehensive immigration reform legislation," Roy said.
Had such legislation been implemented this year, he said, it would have allowed existing workers to qualify for visas to stay for five years and would have modified the existing guest-worker program so that new people could come to work in the future.
"This proposed rule is going to be very difficult for agriculture," he said.
For years, the Social Security Administration has sent "no-match" letters to workers and their employers notifying them of the information discrepancies, to make sure money withheld from a person's paycheck is credited to the correct worker. The letters are not shared with other government agencies because of privacy laws.
Although employers are prohibited from hiring illegal workers, their responsibilities with the letters have generally ended with notifying the workers of the discrepancies and leaving it to them to deal with it.
Attorneys have warned many employers to be careful not to fire workers because they got the letters, because the no-match could be the result of typos in names or numbers, computer errors or name changes that weren't reported after marriages or other reasons.
However, those who don't comply with the new rule could be deemed as knowingly hiring illegal workers.
The Department of Homeland Security says the new rule provides guidance to employers on how to deal with workers who receive no-match letters and what to do: Fire them if the issue is not resolved in 60 days and they can't verify their workers are legal.
It gives employers who comply immunity from penalties if illegal workers are found at their business in investigations or raids, said Russ Knocke, Homeland Security Department spokesman.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Homeland Security Department, "is going to be tough and aggressive in the enforcement of the law," Knocke said. "You are going to see more work-site cases, and no more excuses."
The administration trotted out the stepped-up enforcement plan last summer but put it on hold while the Senate debated an immigration reform bill.
That bill would have granted a chance at legal status for the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and created a temporary worker program. It also would have required employers to verify the status of all their workers.
After the bill collapsed in Congress, employers started bracing for the tougher rule.
"Congress didn't act. They didn't do what they needed to do on comprehensive immigration reform. Now there's going to be some pain to pay, and Congress is not going to feel the pain right away; it's the communities (of employees), and that's a real shame," said Laura Reiff, co-chairwoman of the Essential Workers Immigration Coalition, a national group of business and trade associations.
For Mark Chamblee, the stricter rule could mean losing some of his 28 workers at his nursery in Tyler, Texas.
Chamblee suspects a few of his workers could have trouble with their Social Security numbers and said he will fire them if the problems aren't resolved.
"Of course, it would add to the workload for the other workers," he said. "It would reduce our production and our output. Not all of our demand would be met on our products. Operating costs would go up."
Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for Pilgrim's Pride Corp., confirmed that the country's largest chicken processing company recently fired employees at two Texas plants.
The company's policy "for some time now" has been to terminate employees who can't clear up discrepancies, Atkinson said.
— Staff writer Stephanie Hoops contributed to this report.
It’s amazing how when you raise the wage, people start showing up to apply. Maybe they should try doing that.
It may hurt for a while, but we can’t have it both ways.
Boo freaking hoo. The rest of us are able to hire workers who aren’t ILLEGALS! They want the taxpayer’s to subsidize their workers instead of paying them a decent wage. I have NO SYMPATHY at all for them.
No worry - Judge Munley explained that the laws the Congress passes aren’t applicable if they’re threatening to other national government’s interests if we don’t get those government’s permission first.
Here is what I do not understand. Our dropout rate in this country is skyrocketing. Where are these dropouts going? It seems to me that we should not have to depend on illegals to fill low skilled and unskilled jobs when our rotten public school system is turning out the unskilled in unprecedented numbers.
Wonder who those drop outs are? Could they be the illegals and could they also be somewhat to blame for ruining the quality of our education? Remember when the statistics are given regarding the number of children with no health care—they are counting illegals. I think statistics are skewed plain and simple. Unemployment doesn’t count those who are no longer drawing unemployement but are still out of work either.
That thief! That robber!
Well Mark hang out the for sale sign and let someone that knows what they are doing buy the business.
Exactly. What you said.
I have a feeling that “immigration reform” is a term we’re going to see again and again. I hope every single such measure is roundly defeated in Congress or vetoed. The only valid “reform” is to build the darn fence, toughen up border security, severely punish those who hire illegals, immediately deport illegals that are discovered living here no matter how long they’ve been here or what job they might have, provide absolutely NO benefits or incentives whatsoever to encourage illegal immigration but instead establish numerous DISincentives...and so on.
I am not defending these growers, but have you ever worked in ag on a 105 degree day? I live in ag country and have worked in ag. It can be brutal, even for the physically fix. High school drop outs and ipod kids are going to work it? Fat chance.
Bingo!
People do what is required of them. If they have no welfare to fall back on they will perform real labor.
Bingo! So the cost of veggies go up a few cents. BFD. Compare that cost to the trillions it will cost in the infrastructure, medical expense, law enforcement, and all the rest of the crap... gangs. Not to mention the loss of our sovereignty and rule of law.
“No worry - Judge Munley explained that the laws the Congress passes aren’t applicable if they’re threatening to other national government’s interests if we don’t get those government’s permission first.”
I think in the long run, Munley did us a favor.......that 206 page document of bovine scatology will never past muster up the hill. Even the cretins of the ACLU are worried............which is a good sign.
My kids did it. And went to college. I'm tired of our youth being discounted. I've worked around alot of young adults, and they are no different than adults. Some lazy, some not. I'm tired of the trash-the-American-youth stereotype. What about the illegals? They snag any kind of handout they can get, AND didn't pay into the system.
LOL!!
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