Firing Illegal Aliens
Companies Now Laying Them Off
By Daniel Muniz

During the intense passionate debate over illegal immigration, a quiet trend began to emerge. A growing number of companies have started to fire their illegal alien employees.

For decades, employers blatantly flouted the law and hired millions of illegal immigrants knowing full well that these workers were illegally here in our country and that they were not permitted to hold employment. Other companies could say with a straight face that they have never hired a single illegal alien. Such an assertion is true although it was the subcontractors that they used that employed all the illegal immigrants but such a shell game allowed them to claim “plausible deniability” if there was any bad publicity.

In addition, so many companies knew outright that illegal workers presented bogus identification when accepting a job offer. Millions of illegal aliens have resorted to identity theft in order to obtain someone else’s social security number for employment purposes. The black market is bulging at seams with plenty of stolen numbers since identity theft in this country is remarkably easy. In fact, it is not uncommon for a hundred different illegal immigrants to be using the same social security number in many states across the country.

In fact, it was pretty easy to use fake social security cards because after all, employers really have no verification capabilities. If someone presents them with an ID that looks legitimate, a company has to accept it and up until now, there really wasn’t a way to cross-check it with any national databases. An employment screening might turn something up but these illegal aliens were doing low wage dirty jobs so a number of companies didn’t want to ask any questions as long as official looking identification was presented.

Besides, prosecution of managers and owners was practically non-existent.

Not surprisingly, politicians from both parties especially Republicans, often intervened on the behalf of companies to prevent raids and deportations.

Enforcement of our immigration laws was dysfunctional and that was exactly the way that Big Business wanted it.

Illegal aliens are not here to see the Grand Canyon or to go up the Empire State Building. They are here for jobs and they have been invited by the private sector to come to America. And they have arrived by the millions and Big Business couldn’t be happier because they want a steady source of cheap labor especially if it is off the books.

But times are changing.

Although politicians are attempting to suppress legislation that will enable the federal government to crack down on illegal aliens, many agencies are slowly acquiring the power to do the job on their own. Employment verification by the government is getting better because new software is being put into place to actually cross-check social security numbers with the Social Security Administration.

In the past, employers could willfully ignore warning letters about employees who were fraudulently used social security numbers because there were no consequences involved. No manager or owner was going to go to jail and it was rare for anyone to get deported.

Today is certainly different.

Fugitive aliens who have deportation orders are now being placed in the FBI database so any street cop can identify them. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is actually conducting investigations and launching raids that result in deportations and managers are now getting arrested.

And those companies who did ignore those warning letters are now thinking twice because people are going to jail and being charged with serious crimes.

The results have been breathtaking.

Many business are starting to get lay off the people who cannot produce valid social security numbers as well as the workers who are obviously illegal. Some business leaders know that the winds are changing and they want to get a jump on this before they wind up behind bars.

Of course, the problem won’t be solved overnight. Right now there are still plenty of loopholes and cracks in the system so illegal workers will have to get better counterfeit documents, probably ID that is only being used by one or two illegal aliens instead of by a hundred people.

If there is a way to exploit the system, a greedy company is going to find it. After all, these employers are in it for the fast buck and for a way to undercut their competition. Cheap labor, especially when it is off the books, saves money and it is an effective way to increase costs for the competitor who is obeying the law and following the rules.

More stringent enforcement of our immigration laws has finally begun but it is only the tip of the iceberg. But is this new vigor only temporary or is part of a true transformation of our immigration policy?

Only in time will we be able to tell.

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