US businesses fear illegal foreign worker crackdown

PROPOSAL: US businesses are bracing for a possible major crackdown on illegal foreign workers, as the government seeks to give immigration authorities more power to punish companies hiring undocumented workers.

President George W. Bush’s administration has proposed a federal regulation that unions warn could lead to mass firings nationwide by companies seeking to avoid prosecution and fines.

“It’s going to put businesses all over the nation in a bind,” said Tamar Jacoby, an immigration expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

“If the feds (federal authorities) really follow through with this, and I think they are going to, you are going to see lots of industries ... leave the US,” Jacoby said.

The rule under consideration in Washington relates directly to the potentially fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, which employees provide at the time of hiring.

Fake Social Security cards are widely available on the black market, allowing many immigrants to work at major US corporations.

Jacoby said the proposed regulation, left pending since June 2006, was boxed up while Congress debated a sweeping immigration reform plan that recently collapsed.

Since the legislation was buried, businesses have braced for the worksite enforcement regulation to be adopted by the Department of Homeland Security, she said.

The largest chicken processor in the United States, Pilgrim’s Pride, has fired more than 100 employees who cannot produce valid Social Security numbers, according to news reports and advocates for the workers in rural east Texas.

Experts describe the firings as a pre-emptive move ahead of beefed-up enforcement.

The company has acknowledged firing workers although it would not say what motivated the layoffs or how many were let go. It has hired replacement workers.

(AFP)