SAN FRANCISCO —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
“We will continue to aggressively enforce our immigration laws while reviewing all legal options,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said immediately after a federal judge here again blocked the department’s implementation of a program that could levy fines as high as $10,000 per infraction against employers of some 8 million suspected illegal workers. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
The National Restaurant Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were among the industry groups applauding the Oct. 10 preliminary injunction won by a labor coalition that sued to stop the “no-match” crackdown on Social Security account discrepancies, which the Department of Homeland Security contends show massive document fraud by immigrant job holders. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer issued the injunction to extend indefinitely a barrier the court established Aug. 31 against the no-match program, which was to have taken effect Sept. 14 with the mailing of letters to 140,000 employers who have 10 or more workers with Social Security name or number discrepancies. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
The Homeland Security rule thwarted by the court would make employers liable if they don’t fire workers who fail to correct Social Security records errors within 90 days of a notification. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
In a 22-page opinion by Breyer, who is the brother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the Northern California district judge said the no-match rule would saddle thousands of businesses with “significant” expenses because of the 90-day reconciliation time frame. He cited evidence that many employers would have to develop costly human resources systems to resolve discrepancies promptly because the new no-match warning letters—unlike the reported 138,000 purely advisory no-match letters sent in 2006—now carry the risk of stiff penalties and the threat of criminal prosecution. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
For those same reasons, Breyer continued, “there is the strong likelihood that employers may simply fire employees who are unable to resolve the discrepancy within 90 days, even if the employees are actually authorized to work.” —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
Firings of lawfully employed workers would take place, the judge contended, “because, as the government recognizes, the no-match letters are based on [Social Security Administration] records that include numerous errors.” —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
Chertoff—who was named a defendant in the lawsuit along with his department, its Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm, and the Social Security Administration and its commissioner, Michael Astrue—said Homeland Security was considering an appeal or the issuance of a modified no-match rule that addressed the judge’s concerns. Presumably, such a revision would allow more than 90 days for SSA account error reconciliations. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
“The American people have been loud and clear about their desire to see our nation’s immigration laws enforced,” Chertoff said. “The no-match regulation is an important part of our efforts.” —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
He called Breyer’s ruling “yet another reminder of why we need Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform.” —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
John Gay, the National Restaurant Association’s senior vice president for government affairs and public policy, said the NRA was pleased that Judge Breyer acted “to protect small businesses across the country by preventing the administration from moving forward with plans to enforce new no-match regulations.” —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
NRA officials “share the judge’s concern about the government’s proposal potentially costing lawfully employed workers their jobs,” Gay said, “and we believe the ruling sends a strong message that the government must carefully consider the cost and implementation of new regulations before making demands of the nation’s small-business community.” —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
Though Breyer noted that the lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO and three San Francisco area labor groups remained unadjudicated, his preliminary ruling laid out a host of perceived defects in the no-match rule and an imbalance in relative hardships that “tips sharply in plaintiffs’ favor” and against Homeland Security’s position. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
One key problem, Breyer said, was that the rule appeared to have been formed without regard for a 1980 law, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, which obligates the government to consider the cost burdens that new regulations pose for small-business owners. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
In a statement, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney noted that “more than 70 percent of SSA discrepancies refer to U.S. citizens, and as Judge Breyer found, the mailing of the new no-match letters would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers.” —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
The union was joined in the lawsuit by the San Francisco Labor Council, the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County. In addition to private law firms in San Francisco, Alameda, Calif., and Washington, D.C., attorneys backing the labor action include several from the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
Plaintiffs’ co-counsel Omar C. Jadwat, of the ACLU Foundation’s Immigrants’ Rights Project in New York, said the preliminary injunction will remain in force until it is “either replaced by a permanent injunction or a finding in favor of the government,” potentially in an appellate court or in the current proceedings, which could take months to complete. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
Hundreds of restaurant chain leaders meeting in Los Angeles this month at the Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference gave strong indications that food-service employers would be among those targeted heavily in pending rounds of no-match letters carrying potentially steep penalties. That could be so because many Social Security identity discrepancies cited in prior advisory letters might remain unresolved. In one show of hands during a labor-related MUFSO seminar, more than half of the restaurant executives indicated that they had received no-match letters previously, while another session’s moderator estimated that about one-fourth of the audience responded affirmatively to the same question. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
That the lawsuit against the government’s plan was filed in California may reflect the prior history of the no-match notification program. Last year 35,474 advisory letters were sent to employers in California whose workers had large numbers of account discrepancies, and that was more than the total sent to the four states with next highest numbers of suspect workers: Texas, Florida, Illinois and New York. —With estimates continuing to place 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the foodservice workforce, including one-fifth of all cooks, the nation’s restaurateurs remained on notice this month that the Bush administration still intends to seek criminal sanctions against employers for widespread hiring infractions.
