Immigration Enforcement Crippled

Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for Northern California (where else?) is blocking efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on those who hire illegal immigrants.

There are an estimated 10 million to 20 million illegal immigrants in this country. Many of them come here to work.

Here's how the DHS program would work: If an employer finds out an employee's information doesn't match Social Security records and the employee can't clarify the issue within 90 days, the employer would have to fire that person or risk being prosecuted. In other words, if the employee obtained his job under false pretenses and was working for the company illegally, he would be fired. Seems simple enough, except when you have an activist judge intent on subverting the law.

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Judge Breyer has delayed the start of enforcement for 10 more days while he examines the legality of the issue. Huh? This law has been on the books for a long time without challenge. What exactly is the problem here? It's against the law to hire illegal immigrants, period.

Judge Breyer has also blocked the Social Security Administration from sending out 140,000 so-called "no-match" letters to employers hiring people whose names and Social Security numbers don't match.

Judge Breyer said compliance with the law could put a "potentially enormous burden on the employer." Yeah, just like complying with OSHA regulations costs money.

The judge raised other issues, too, including the language and legality of those "no-match" letters. Either the number matches or it doesn't, another mountain out of a mole hill. And the judge says he's worried about potential discrimination in firing illegal Hispanic workers but not other illegal workers. Come on, your honor. If you are discriminated against at your place of employment, you have recourse on your own regardless of nationality.

The bigger question is, if it's against the law to hire illegal immigrants, why is this even before a judge? Because there is an agenda at work here to leave the illegal immigrant problem alone. Too many special interest groups benefit from the cheap labor, etc. That's why you didn't see anything resembling real immigration reform coming out of Congress and why you still haven's seen our borders secured six years after 9/11.

We have a hotel here in Emeryville by the name of the Woodfin. They found a number of employees with the nonmatching social security numbers (ie they were using someone else's or made them up period). The hotel asked for those people to clear things up. Some did. Many didn't. They then fired the people Immediately, an 'activist' group moved in and started raising a ruckus. They have been marching outside the hotel regularly, blaring air horns, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Residents of Emeryville are now complaining even if they do have some sort of sympathy for the workers (I only have a little, being someone that's pretty high up on the letter of the law and rule of law thingie). They have a restaurant that my wife and I are talking about starting to patronize regularly as a show of support.

I really don't understand this. If it is illegal to hire these people, why are the activists targeting the businesses? Why not Congress? After all they are the ones that pass the law. Maybe...maybe...maybe it's because you know that the vast majority of us are, y'know, in agreement that this is a law that needs to be enforced? So you have to do an end run around the the rest of us and try to either bully to get what you want or convincing a judge to be sympathetic. oy.