WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has launched a two-fold crackdown on the hiring of illegal immigrants: businesses that employ illegal workers and companies that vet too much, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is in the process of looking into employment records of numerous companies it suspects hired undocumented employees. On the flip side, the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal departments are investigating firms, such as factories, restaurants and retailers, for supposedly violating anti-discrimination laws by asking for too many documents from non-U.S. citizen potential employees. Some companies have decided to settle out-of-court with the government to avoid lawsuits or other enforcement penalties.
"The message is: Employers beware. You need to worry just as much about asking for too many immigration documents as you do about not asking for enough," said Stephen Yale-Loehr, who studies immigration law at Cornell University.
Provisions in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) have caused the current two-prong approach. Under the IRCA, companies are prohibited from knowingly hiring undocumented workers and they must check an applicant??s work status via the "I-9" form process, which necessitates an employer verifying the authenticity of the documents presented.
However, the INA anti-discrimination protections promise that "all individuals authorized to work in the U.S. have the right to seek employment without the added burden of special rules or document demands based on their citizenship status or national origin," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights.
By the end of this year, the Department of Justice will have added 25 percent more lawyers and examiners to its Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-related Unfair Employment Practices. "The Obama administration has been much more active in enforcing the immigration law??s anti-discrimination provisions than the Bush administration," said Yale-Loehr.