Immigration reform rests on a national worker ID

**Jolie Rouge** · 04-30-2010, 10:39 PM

Immigration: Tear it down, and they will leave
By La Shawn Barber • April 30, 2010 02:19 PM

New York, California, Texas, Arizona and Florida have lagged behind in Census returns. Care to guess why? These states happen to have “higher shares of residents who are Latinos.” http://www.startribune.com/nation/92345109.html

Either people just don’t care and/or the states’ Latinos are angry and/or illegal aliens in those states are afraid to announce their presence.

Sources report that illegal aliens are leaving Arizona for more “tolerant” pastures. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...n6442729.shtml

I’m really wishing and hoping they head to that wonderful, welcoming, and tolerant city, San Francisco. Man, I would love to see that. I predict a cascading effect among the states. As illegal aliens in Arizona head to states like Utah and Texas, they’ll craft their own immigration enforcement laws. In fact, a Utah lawmaker has introduced a bill. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...-Arizonas.html

An immigration law expert debunks myths about Arizona’s law in the New York Times, and it’s a must-read... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/op...er=rss&emc=rss

Anti-enforcement types typically say America can’t round up millions of illegal aliens and kick them out. Impractical! In 2008, I attended the Republican presidential debate and listened to Congressman Tom Tancredo debunk the rounding-up-millions myth. He said we don’t have to round them up. Enforce the law, and they’ll go home. Tear down the sanctuary, and they will leave.

All week, I’ve contained my anger over talk of “Gestapo” Arizona and Hispanics protesting and calling the law “racist” (although I vented a little http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/20...l-immigration/

: ).

I don’t hate illegal aliens.

I hate that my country has been overrun.

I hate that I see Spanish language signs and government forms.

I hate that my country has turned a blind eye to illegal south-of-the-border “immigration” because of the cheap labor it provides.

I hate that our elected officials want to offer amnesty to these same illegal aliens, when people trying to enter and stay in the U.S. legally are still in line.

I hated it when George Bush pushed an amnesty bill (which crashed and burned), and I’ll hate it when Barack Obama does it.

:hissyfit:

Now I turn to something I love: THE WEEKEND!

**Advertisement** · 04-30-2010 10:39 PM

**hblueeyes** · 05-01-2010, 08:57 AM

Here is something I hate: Illegals who commit crimes like rape, murder or hit and run and then flee home or get handled differently in our courts because of their illegal status.

Me

I too love the weekend.

**pepperpot** · 05-01-2010, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by hblueeyes

Here is something I hate: Illegals who commit crimes like rape, murder or hit and run and then flee home or get handled differently in our courts because of their illegal status.

Me

I too love the weekend.

...and we foot the bill for prosecuting and defending them....

**jasmine** · 05-01-2010, 05:13 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/30/ari...x.html?hpt=Mid

Some Hispanic Americans hope law deters illegal immigration

Susan Schwartz, whose great-grandparents are from Mexico, supports Arizona's new immigration law.

Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Sue Schwartz says she's been called a racist so many times she doesn't mind the label anymore. If wanting immigrants to enter the country legally, like her great-grandparents from Mexico, and obey the laws of the land makes her racist, then so be it, she says firmly.

"I'm getting to the point I wear it with pride," says Schwartz, a lifelong Arizonan who has warily watched the growth of the illegal immigrant population in the state over the course of her life.

About 500,000 unauthorized immigrants were believed to live in Arizona in 2008, and 11.9 million nationwide, up from 3.5 million nationwide in 1990, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report published in 2009.

This year, the tide is finally turning in her favor, she says, with the passage of SB 1070, aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.

The new law requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect they're in the United States illegally.

Read the full text of Senate Bill 1070 (PDF)

"I hope it makes a lot of them leave on their own, self-deportation. Hopefully that'll open up more jobs. There's a lot of people here who will do menial jobs -- maybe not pick lettuce, but these people aren't just picking lettuce any more," says Schwartz.

The new law also targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them.

What will Arizona immigration law do?

Schwartz, a retired USPS worker, says undocumented workers are taking jobs from citizens like her teenage granddaughter, who hasn't been able to find a job since she began looking after she turned 15.

"She can't even work at the Hometown Buffet if she doesn't speak Spanish. How fair is that?" she said.

Reporters talk Ariz. immigration reform But Schwartz and some other Americans with Hispanic backgrounds who spoke with CNN say the problem with illegal immigrants isn't just the jobs they take. It's how they're overrunning towns like Phoenix, turning them into "mini-Mexicos" with their trash-filled streets and loud music, according to Schwartz.

Of equal concern to her friend, Martha Payan, is how she claims illegal immigrants "fleece" government coffers by collecting welfare on multiple children, or vanish without a trace after an arrest or a hospital visit.

The two women, who became acquainted through various demonstrations in the metro Phoenix area, met Thursday to discuss their views outside the Maricopa County Municipal building, as more backlash against the controversial immigration law continued to flood the city.

Latin pop star Shakira arrived in town Thursday to discuss SB 1070 with Mayor Phil Gordon, who has vowed to fight the law. This comes a day after Mexico urged its citizens not to travel to Arizona.

Sporting a white baseball cap that that reads, "100% American Citizen," Schwartz says she believes that SB 1070 came about because law enforcement in Phoenix was fed up over not being able to ask suspects about their immigration status.

"Any time an American does something wrong or breaks the law they're going to pay the consequences. Whenever an illegal does something wrong they get a new ID and become a new person," she says. "I want the laws same for everybody here, not bent for them."

The 59-year-old mother of four adult children says her Mexican parents and grandparents taught her a respect for the law at an early age. Her grandmother, who lived in Juarez, Mexico, after being kicked out of the United States for smuggling drugs, encouraged her to get a good education and speak English, her second language, outside of the home.

"If I entered another country illegally I'd go to jail, yet they're demanding better treatment than their government would give us," she says.

iReport: Share your thoughts on immigration policy

Anna Gaines, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen, says she took up the fight against illegal immigration after becoming disillusioned by the attitudes of immigrant families that she witnessed as a teacher in the Paradise Valley School District in Paradise, Arizona.

"Many of these families were having one child after another just to earn a paycheck from the U.S. government and they didn't care about their children's education," says Gaines, the controversial founder of American Citizens United, a grass-roots organization known for its extreme views on immigration enforcement. "They didn't want to contribute, just take."

I hope it stops trespassers and lets people know ... you cross that border illegally, it's a crime.

--Martha Payan, who is originally from Puerto Rico

Gaines, who came to the United States as a nurse on a work visa during the Vietnam War and met her current husband, says she thinks immigrants have changed over the years.

"There used to be a level of dignity and self-respect. They were hard-working people who wanted to contribute to American society because it was better than where they came from," says Gaines, a petite woman in her 70s. "But our government has been giving them handouts for so long that now they expect them."

Gaines says SB 1070 mirrors federal law on fortifying the borders, allowing local officials to enforce immigration law in a manner that the federal government should have been doing all along.

"We as Americans have the right to defend this country's laws. There's nothing racist about protecting the country," she says.

Payan, originally from Puerto Rico, hopes the law will deter future illegal immigration.

"I hope it stops trespassers and lets people know the law is the law and you cross that border illegally, it's a crime," she says.

Payan has also been called "traidora," or traitor, by neighbors in her primarily Hispanic neighborhood who know how she feels about illegal immigrants.

"They know how I feel. I don't hide my feeling," she says. "I've already had by apartment broken into and had my car hit by an illegal. What more do I have to lose?"

**Jolie Rouge** · 05-01-2010, 09:09 PM

Rep. Gutierrez arrested outside of White House in immigration protest
By Kevin Bogardus - 05/01/10 03:56 PM ET

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) was arrested outside the White House on Saturday during a May Day protest for immigration reform.

Guiterrez had been speaking to a crowd of hundreds at Lafayette Square when he announced that he was going to go to the White House fence with other protesters, sit down, and not move until he was arrested or until comprehensive immigration reform was signed.

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Gutierrez, who chanted "Si se puede" ("Yes, it is possible") along with other demonstrators, linked arms with other protesters and took a seat along the White House fence. He was warned to move by police, and when he did not comply he was arrested with a few dozen other protesters.

The crowd chanted the congressman's name as he was led onto the bus.

Gutierrez was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Arrest me, not my friends."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...of-white-house

**Jolie Rouge** · 06-21-2010, 02:03 PM

Monday, June 21, 2010
The Most Politically Tone-Deaf PSA Evah?

That's what Ed Morrissey asks about this one that has Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis advising illegals of the number they can call to make sure they are getting their proper wages. Not, apparently, a joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3owMA...layer_embedded

Says Ed:

Does it occur to the White House at all that "undocumented" workers are breaking the law themselves? They shouldn't be exploited, but then again, they shouldn't be here to be exploited, either. At the same time that the Obama administration contemplates a lawsuit against Arizona to stop them from enforcing immigration law, they're working on a program that supports the people breaking that law, all while unemployment continues at a high rate long after their stimulus plans have run aground. Instead of enforcing the law - which is, after all, the raison d'être of the executive branch -- they're conspiring to help people break it, and with our tax dollars, no less.

Of course, this could be an elaborate ruse to find new sites to raid. The political fallout from that would be fun to watch, but alas, it seems that despite the cheesy graphics and extraordinarily bad concept, Obama and his team are serious about helping illegal immigrants get paid more for their work.

UPDATE: Here is the twisted logic that Obama’s Department of Labor is using to justify this lunacy: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs48.htm

On March 27, 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, No. 00-1595 (S. Ct.), that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) lacked authority to order back pay to an undocumented worker who was laid off from his job because of union activities.

In Hoffman Plastics, the Supreme Court decided that providing back pay to the undocumented worker would conflict with policies under U.S. immigration laws. Those laws require employees to present documents establishing their identity and authorization to work at the time they are hired. An employer must check those documents and cannot knowingly hire someone who is not authorized to work. In Hoffman Plastics, the employee presented false documentation when he was hired. He was later laid off for trying to organize a union, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRB sought back pay for a period of time after the layoff. The Supreme Court concluded that back pay should not be awarded “for years of work not performed, for wages that could not lawfully have been earned, and for a job obtained in the first instance by a criminal fraud.”

The Supreme Court’s decision does not mean that undocumented workers do not have rights under other U.S. labor laws. In Hoffman Plastics, the Supreme Court interpreted only one law, the NLRA. The Department of Labor does not enforce that law. The Supreme Court did not address laws the Department of Labor enforces, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), that provide core labor protections for vulnerable workers. The FLSA requires employers to pay covered employees a minimum wage and, in general, time and a half an employee’s regular rate of pay for overtime hours. The MSPA requires employers and farm labor contractors to pay the wages owed to migrant or seasonal agricultural workers when the payments are due.

The Department’s Wage and Hour Division will continue to enforce the FLSA and MSPA without regard to whether an employee is documented or undocumented. Enforcement of these laws is distinguishable from ordering back pay under the NLRA. In Hoffman Plastics, the NLRB sought back pay for time an employee would have worked if he had not been illegally discharged, under a law that permitted but did not require back pay as a remedy. Under the FLSA or MSPA, the Department (or an employee) seeks back pay for hours an employee has actually worked, under laws that require payment for such work. The Supreme Court’s concern with awarding back pay “for years of work not performed, for wages that could not lawfully have been earned,” does not apply to work actually performed. Two federal courts already have adopted this approach. See Flores v. Albertson’s, Inc., 2002 WL 1163623 (C.D. Cal. 2002); Liu v. Donna Karan International, Inc., 2002 WL 1300260 (S.D.N.Y. 2002).

The Department of Labor is still considering the effect of Hoffman Plastics on other labor laws it enforces, including those laws prohibiting retaliation for engaging in protected conduct.

Basically they know that they’re violating the intention of the supreme court’s ruling in Hoffman Plastics but they don’t give a damn. They throw up the weak argument the ruling only applied to the specific law that was addressed in the case. However, I think the court is clearly saying that the government can’t force employers to pay wages that couldn’t have been legally earned in the first place.

This all makes me wonder if Obama’s DOL is going to make sure that drug dealers are paid a “fair” wage by the gangs that employ them? I mean is that not the same situation? An employer which knowingly illegally employs someone and exploits them?

Will Obama’s DOL make sure all people illegally employed are paid a “fair” wage or just the ones whose political cause they support? And even if they do try to help all people employed illegally does that make it any better? How can anybody justify any of this as a good idea?

Shouldn’t the government be trying to stop people from finding illegal employment not help them once they’ve obtained it?

http://blog.eyeblast.tv/2010/06/obam...llegals-wages/

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