Jun 1, 2010
Tough Road Ahead for Immigration Reform
By Bill Leonard
Senate Democrats are hoping that a new framework for reforming federal immigration laws will help jump-start a long-stalled debate on how to secure U.S. borders and ensure that employers are not hiring undocumented workers.
The Democrats released a 26-page framework on April 29, 2010. The document received mixed reactions from employers and business groups, who are hoping to see improvements to the federal government’s employee verification processes. Yet, many were optimistic that the framework could provide a much needed push to get immigration reform back on track.
“We hope that this framework will begin to move this important debate forward,” said Michael Aitken, director of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Pressure from Hispanic immigrant groups and reaction to a controversial immigration law enacted in Arizona prompted Senate Democrats to unveil their immigration framework. Debate on comprehensive immigration reform could begin on Capitol Hill in June 2010 and could be a hot topic for the November 2010 congressional elections.
The first part of the Democrats’ framework is devoted to proposals for securing the nation’s borders and include ideas such as increasing the number of Border Patrol agents and installing new technology and sensors along the U.S. border with Mexico.
The bulk of the document addresses changes for the employment of immigrants by reforming the federal government’s verification system and visas for skilled and unskilled workers. The framework includes a proposal for documenting the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants who are working in the U.S.
The Democrats’ reform framework could present challenges to employers because enforcement of the law and federal regulations would focus largely on businesses that hire immigrant workers. One provision of the proposal would increase penalties by 300 percent for employers that knowingly hire workers who are unauthorized to work in the
United States.
The proposal would offer incentives for workers, documented and undocumented, who are victims of labor law violations to cooperate with law enforcement officials. The incentives would help federal investigators identify businesses that attempt to exploit immigrant workers by not paying for overtime work and paying salaries less than the minimum wage.