Immigration: Employers vs. The Man

I recently suggested that there’s a new states’ rights movement concerning immigration.  The old states’ rights movement resulted in another opposing cause, the civil rights movement.  This new states’ rights movement is generating a new opposing cause, yet unnamed.  The civil rights movement was marked by civil disobedience: sit-ins, boycotts, strikes, and marches.  It was composed largely of people of color who didn’t enjoy equal rights for public accommodations, housing, and employment.  The new movement hasn’t yet taken to the streets and isn’t composed of immigrant-support groups.  It has begun to make noise in state legislatures and the Congress and is composed of employers.

Three developments have galvanized this new opposing cause.  First, the federal government has begun a crackdown on illegal immigrants working in the U.S.  Second, the Congress has done nothing on immigration reform.  Third, state legislatures have enacted punitive laws that impact immigrants and employers.

When hundreds of immigrants are arrested at one job site, it can come close to shutting an operation down, not to mention the damage it does to an employer’s reputation.  Employers have documents, often run through the federal E-verify system, supporting the immigrants’ right to work, but they’re expertly counterfeit.  Employers contend that the Social Security Administration E-Verify database is full of errors, making it ridiculous to impose a nationwide mandatory use of the system.

Employers are beginning to take Congressional inaction personally.  The economy is in the tank.  Some employers can’t find any immigrant laborers, because they’ve gone underground.  They also can’t find any non-immigrant laborers to do the most backbreaking jobs they have, even at market-rate pay.  Employers are taking it personally, because it appears that Congress is oblivious to their plight.  There’s no relief in sight from Congress, however, until after the November elections.  Members of Congress who want to be reelected (and that would be just about 100% of them) won’t vote on immigration reform before the elections, especially when two groups ordinarily aligned, employers and conservative anti-immigrant groups, are at opposite ends of the spectrum on this issue.

Where employers are having some luck is with state legislatures.  A few have rolled back the tough anti-immigrant laws passed earlier.  Some have recently refused to pass punitive legislation.  State legislators are a little closer to home than members of Congress and are convinced that employers find themselves in a Catch 22 situation.  Employers who hire large numbers of immigrants can be in complete compliance with the law, and they will still hire a certain percentage of illegals using false documents.  Those who rail against a system that allows illegal immigrants into the country ignore the reality that the system is just as broken for legal employers.

Immigration control advocates tell illegal immigrants to go home or go to jail.  Employers are beginning to hear a message that says go out of business or go to jail.  Employers, usually the epitome of The Man, are now fighting Him.