immigration rumor

A rumor that the immigration police were in town went around Green Bay, WI this week. The superintendent of schools had to send out letters to families basically saying that it wasn't their job to report illegals. It was only a rumor, but apparently many Hispanic children stopped going to school. There was a noticeable drop in attendance.

I believe I've posted before, but it is believed that over half the Hispanic population in Brown County are illegal. I wonder how the packing companies functioned this week. Supposedly they were "able to work at capacity". I can understand the schools, but shouldn't the employers be concerned and/or accountable at this point. On the news, some companies admitted that employees weren't showing up for work. don't they have the responsibility of proving these people are legally here, if they hired them?

runaroundsue wrote:

A rumor that the immigration police were in town went around Green Bay, WI this week. The superintendent of schools had to send out letters to families basically saying that it wasn't their job to report illegals. It was only a rumor, but apparently many Hispanic children stopped going to school. There was a noticeable drop in attendance. I believe I've posted before, but it is believed that over half the Hispanic population in Brown County are illegal. I wonder how the packing companies functioned this week. Supposedly they were "able to work at capacity". I can understand the schools, but shouldn't the employers be concerned and/or accountable at this point. On the news, some companies admitted that employees weren't showing up for work. don't they have the responsibility of proving these people are legally here, if they hired them?

No, Sue, they don't. IRCA was the rule in 1986 that made companies have to check ID like a license, SSN, etc. But corporate America pressured gov that it was in business to do business, not factcheck. So the rule is that an employer has to ask for the ID and the employee has a few days to get ID to the employer after being hired. If the employee fails to do this, he can be canned immediately. It's almost as if every offer is a conditional offer based on being able to provide these. The employer is NOT required, at this point, to do any other verification.

That could change, depending on which of the many pieces of proposed legislation actually passes.

I don't know. I'd take G3's view and knowledge over mine. When I was in a position of hiring people who could be illegal, all we did was make sure that documentation and ID's went through the payroll system. If they did, it was a done deal on our part.

Now, if people whose documentation still passed suddenly stopped appearing for work after such a notice, I'd wonder, but I don't know what you would do.

They are busy this week! They were in the town where DH works too, Rockford IL. His company is prolly more than half temps, most of which according to him are illegal. On Monday word got out and the plant cleared out in a heartbeat. They were back on Tuesday I believe and nobody got hauled out. I asked him how is this possible and he said they are apparently providing SSN's that clear. I don't get it.