The Possibility of Piecemeal — Not Comprehensive — Immigration Reform and Immigration Raids

Julia Preston writes in the N.Y. Times about some of the pieces of immigration reform legislation percolating in Congress, including the Dream Act (which opponents apparently have dubbed the “Nightmare” Act): “When a broad immigration bill failed in the Senate in June after a vitriolic national debate, many legislators said the issue was dead, perhaps until President Bush left office. But already some of the less contentious pieces of the bill are returning to life.”

At the same time, the L.A. Times reports that federal officials are planning a new crackdown on illegal immigrants. In the coming days, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to issue a rule outlining how businesses must respond when they receive notice that there are discrepancies in a worker’s tax records. Many businesses simply ignore such notices now. Under the new rules, employees would have a limited time to contact the Social Security Administration to correct the information, or face termination. The rule would transfer more responsibility for enforcement to companies — part of a Homeland Security effort to break through the complacency that some officials say the corporate world has about illegal workers. The discrepancies detected in Social Security employment records can sometimes flag illegal workers on the job. However, the planned crackdown has provoked concern because many of the errors are benign: misspellings or incorrect birthdates in records of citizens or legal immigrants. There are errors in the records of an estimated 12.7 million U.S. citizens alone, and workers rushing to correct these discrepancies could swamp Social Security offices, much as new travel regulations have paralyzed government passport facilities this year. And businesses are complaining about bearing the burden of enforcing a flawed immigration system.

KJ