In order to tackle the U.S. Illegal Immigration issues, even broadly, a person must first change their paradigms and understand the root issues which create the crisis.
Before you can reasonably present a solution to the problem, you must first understand the problem. Understanding how illegal aliens work in the U.S. is step one toward understanding what proposed solutions would/could work, and which are mere political talking points. Here’s the stuff the professional political class don’t want you to know.
Most people think of illegal alien workers as farm workers or employed by small service businesses. While there is some validity to the precept, the vast majority of illegal aliens actually find it easier to gain employment in large organizational businesses. When you understand labor law, you understand why this is the case.
Every entity that hires people is potentially at risk for audit or inspection from the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) within their regional jurisdiction. The EEOC responds to hiring practice complaints from a perspective of insuring equal employment opportunity. As we’ll show, the rules of the EEOC are in direct contradiction with Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) immigration laws.
Large corporations have legal and HR departments to assist and train the hiring by managers within the organizational structure. These departments exist first and foremost to protect the organization from risks presented by the EEOC.
When you understand the emphasis of the risk avoidance you begin to understand how illegal aliens in the workforce are as common an occurrence as legally employed U.S. workers.
♦ FIRST – According to EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), or EEO, rules and laws, IT IS UNLAWFUL NOT TO HIRE ILLEGAL ALIENS.
According to EEO laws, under the auspices of their guiding principle of Disparate Impact (in discrimination rulings), a business cannot use any employment eligibility standard that disqualifies a federally protected category (in this example ethnicity) from employment.
Here’s how it works on Main Street – If you require all applicants to be legally eligible to work in the U.S., and part of that application process is the applicant providing you documents to prove that eligibility, you cannot verify those documents –> if the verification of those documents would exclude a larger percentage of ethnic applicants, protected class applicants, than the general application pool.
Meaning, as an example, if you check Social Security numbers (example E-Verify) and that verification disqualifies a disproportionate amount more Latinos than all other applicants, then the verification process itself is unlawful because it creates a “Disparate Impact” against Latinos and you are guilty of violating EEOC law.
That risk is why most U.S. businesses do not use E-Verify.
As a direct consequence, there is no legal requirement to verify employment eligibility beyond accepting the word of the applicant. This takes us to the second point.
♦ SECOND – The illegal aliens get work with the presentation of false documents; and as outlined above the business cannot disqualify the applicant because of those false documents.
The Dept. of Homeland Security now has the responsibility for telling employers how to scrutinize hiring documents; as you can see below DHS doesn’t want employers being critical.
In short, to avoid running afoul of EEO laws (ie avoiding lawsuits, fines, penalties), and because DHS essentially discourages critique, most businesses don’t even check Social Security Numbers – and if the eligibility documents look legit, DHS guidance says “accept them”.
The only legal requirement upon the hiring organization is for the business to complete the federally required I-9 employment form with the information from the documents provided by the applicant when hired.
This I-9 form, along with W-4, is then sent to the IRS and a copy kept on file for random audit/inspection within the business.
The fact the information is false has no bearing on the business. The hiring company has to take the word of the employee as to the truthfulness therein. Illegals know this, and pay for false documents ($300 to $600 per set) to complete this part of their employment.
This is how illegals get jobs. This is also why the Democrats oppose “Card Check” legislation which could stop illegal aliens from getting employment.
The I-9 is completed by the employer, using the employee presenting information to evidence their eligibility. The W-4 is the employee filling out their tax withholding status. The W-4 is also the easiest way to know if you have hired an illegal, (though you can’t question it, or do anything about it) because all illegals do the same thing on their W-4. which brings us to point #3.
♦ THIRD – It is an absolute lie that illegals pay federal income taxes. 80% of the illegals working will never file income tax returns. Instead, the way they keep their money is to falsify the number of dependents on their W-4. It is not unusual to see W-4’s from illegal aliens claiming up to 10-15 dependents. This keeps them from paying much, if any, federal income taxes.
The illegals will never file returns so a tax refund is never part of their considerations. Instead they work on avoiding paying taxes on the front-end, their paychecks. However, they do pay into SSI which they cannot avoid.
♦ FOURTH – How do they get away with it? The IRS and Social Security Office have a process of comparing Social Security numbers based on the SSI collections, and the database of social security numbers when generated by the feds. (*Note* you might be familiar with SSI benefit statements from the Social Security office during your work history – usually rec’d in the mail).
The comparison of SS numbers to SS/IRS/Data-base filings generates a list known as a Mismatched Social Security list.
Starting in early 2002, under the updated policy, a letter is being sent in each case where the employer filed even one Form W-2 where the worker’s name or Social Security number does not match SSA records. The letters began going out to employers shortly after the 1/31/02 calendar year deadline for W-2s, producing concern and confusion for employers because of conflicting obligations under different laws. (link)
If you have an employee on that list, the feds send you a notification of mis-matched social security number. This is also the primary way that all employers are notified they have illegal aliens working for them.
And to give you an idea how this process is filled with legal trapdoors to be avoided consider this paragraph:
Watch out for discriminatory actions. On the other hand, employers also risk a charge of unlawful discrimination by terminating employees because they are not able to explain and resolve SSN/name discrepancies. As in any employment action, employers should be careful to treat employees consistently, without regard for the employee’s ethnic group, citizenship status, or nationality. Further, employers should be careful to avoid a charge of “document abuse” that could result if employees are required to show their Social Security cards to help resolve a mismatch.
SSA letters carefully advise employers to “ask [their] employees to check [their] Social Security card and to inform [them] of any name or Social Security number difference” between the records and the cards. Under IRCA, employers should not require employees to present specific documents, including Social Security cards, for employment eligibility verification purposes.
Do you begin to see the problem? But wait, it gets worse:
“It was wrong before but now it’s right”. INS also opines on one specific situation that occurs fairly frequently. An employee who has been working under a false SSN subsequently becomes authorized for employment and obtains a legitimate SSN. The employee then informs his employer that his SSN has changed so that his earnings can be credited to his new, proper SSA account. The employer in this situation should consider reviewing its policy regarding termination decisions when employees commit fraud in the workplace, and should consult counsel regarding the employee’s possible termination. INS’s opinion contains a reminder that “[k]nowing false statements on the Form I-9, or the use of false documents to obtain employment, are felonies that are not excused by subsequent grants of work authorization or lawful status.” INS further advises that employers should not continue to rely on Forms I-9 that the employer knows were completed fraudulently. (link)
There are some instances where a married woman with a name change might appear on that mismatched list; however, the vast majority are fraudulent social security numbers.
The business is notified and is obligated (10 days) to re-verify the employee information, and send them to the local SS office to reconcile/fix the disparity within 30 days.
It can take years, sometimes many years, for the SS Administration to catch the illegal SS# being used. In the interim the employee is getting paid just like every other employee. I’ve personally seen illegals with 5 to 15 years of employment before they appear on the list.
However, in actual life the result is not too complex. Generally as soon as you tell an illegal alien you have received that mismatch notification, they’ll simply quit.
If you have a good relationship with them, they’ll admit they are illegal – and simply go get another job and start the process all over again. If you don’t know them well, or if they are not comfortable with you, they just stop showing up to work.
That’s it.
It’s not a grand or significant conspiracy. No big mystery. No-one goes looking, no-one comes to see you. Just *poof* the illegal disappears, and the business hires someone else, quite possibly another illegal – and the cycle begins again.
This is just the way it works. It is not the fault of the business, who are simply complying with conflicting employment and labor laws.
However, what most people don’t know is what you just read; that EEOC hiring rules are in direct conflict with Dept of Labor hiring Laws when it comes to DHS employment eligibility, INS immigration laws, and EEOC “disparate impact”.
So when we outline how to stop illegal alien employment (Part II) we first must accept that DHS, INS, Dept. of Labor, and EEOC all must come into alignment.
It does not take laws to accomplish this, the laws are already on the books, it simply takes a president who clarifies the rules to their cabinet members (Labor and DOJ).
The only actual law needed is a federal law to mandate the verification of employment eligibility documents. The current proposal to mandate this verification is called “card check”, which is staunchly opposed by liberals, progressives and Democrat politicians.