Homeland to appeal No-Match ruling
by Nicole Gaouette
Dec. 5 – The Bush administration on Tuesday ratcheted up its effort to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, part of a broader attempt to deal with immigration and enforcement despite legal challenges and congressional inaction.
The Department of Homeland Security told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it plans to appeal a decision by a federal judge in San Francisco that temporarily blocks efforts to target workers with inconsistent Social Security data – a linchpin in the government’s efforts to stem illegal immigration.
Also Tuesday, the administration announced that, for the first time since records began being kept, its aggressive pursuit of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes has led to a decline in the “fugitive alien” population.
Expected soon are new rules making it easier to bring foreign farm workers into the country. The government also has continued to add agents along the U.S.-Mexico border and has surpassed its fiscal year 2007 goal for extending fencing along that frontier.
In the court case, the administration filed notice that it intends to appeal an Oct. 11 injunction against its plan to use Social Security “no-match” letters to target companies that hire illegal workers. It was the latest step in a court battle over a proposed Homeland Security rule that would force companies to fire workers within 90 days if their Social Security information could not be verified.
“The point is that we are trying to make it harder to break the law,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. He added that the rule would have an impact on businesses that hire illegally.
The administration announced Tuesday that it had detained record numbers of fugitive aliens in fiscal year 2006, arresting 30,408 people, almost double the 15,462 taken into custody the year before.
Source: LA Times