Illegal hiring fuels problem

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer
12/05/2005

PHOENIX -- Politicians setting out to repair America's immigration system in the coming year will face a problem that's viewed as being a low priority for the government yet is blamed for encouraging border crossings: employers who break the law by hiring illegal immigrants.

Many lawmakers and immigration analysts give the government poor marks in cracking down on employers hiring illegal immigrants, who account for an estimated 4 percent to 8 percent of all people working in the United States.

The government conducts a relatively small number of employer investigations, they say, provides inadequate resources for such inquiries, and has written deeply flawed rules for employers to follow.

That will have to change, say advocates for an immigration overhaul, if Congress approves a guest-worker program as part of the proposed immigration updates it will consider sometime in the next few months.

Otherwise, employers who follow the rules would face higher labor costs for legal foreign workers, while unscrupulous businesses would benefit from the lower wages accepted by illegal immigrants, said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the pro-immigrant National Immigration Forum.

Read the entire article at the Arizona Daily Sun