States take stand against big business
exploiting cheap labor laws
by Robert Stone, staff writer
Federal agents are cracking down on businesses, that hire
illegal immigrants, but there has been very little done to
enforce these laws.
In Arizona, Governor Janet Napolitano
signed a bill in July prohibiting all business from hiring
illegal immigrants. The reason for this bill is to weaken
the economic opportunities for illegal immigrants, thereby
deterring the illegal immigrants from sneaking across the
United States-Mexico border. The governor mentioned that
while immigration was a federal issue, she signed the law,
“Because it is abundantly clear that Congress finds itself
incapable of coping with immigration reforms our country.
People who favor tougher border
sanctions say the federal government has not enforced state
punishments. The federal laws that ban employers from
knowingly hiring illegal immigrants have failed to be
adequately enforced. Businesses could have licenses
suspended or worse, the first offense, if caught, would be
up to 10 days, while the second and final offense would be
permantly out of business. The opponents of the law said,
that Arizona’s business could weaken. But this is whining on
the part of the employers, who just want to exploit cheap
labor laws.
An incident in Houston last year, led
to the arrest of seven former IFCO Systems managers, a
manufacturer of pallets, on charges of hiring illegal
workers. More than 1,100 undocumented aliens were arrested
on immigration charges at more than 40 IFCO sites across the
United States. During 2005, more employees were carrying
invalid or mismatched Social Security numbers, the
government reported. The case began when officials got a
trip that IFCO workers in Guilderland, N.Y., were seen
ripping up W-2 income tax forms, because they did not plan
to file tax returns.
With more illegal immigrants trying to
enter our county with the intentions of finding a better
life, they get judged in a negatively for entering the
country in an illegal way. If these immigrants would take
the proper steps to enter this country, they would not need
to get punished to provide for their families.
