DHS to revise 'no-match' rule by March
DHS to revise 'no-match' rule by March
WASHINGTON -- A federal court has given the Bush administration until March 24 to revise its "no-match letter" regulation, and the Department of Homeland Security said it plans to publish a new proposal this month.
A coalition of labor and business groups has been trying to block DHS from applying the new rule and a federal judge agreed in October to put it on hold. At issue is a rule that would require employers to resolve discrepancies with employees whose records do not match those from the Social Security Administration within 90 days of receipt of a no-match letter. DHS said it plans to publish a revised proposal this month, followed by a final rule by the court deadline.
"The government saw the handwriting on the wall and abandoned its failed effort to defend this rule," said the American Civil Liberties Union's Lucas Guttentag, one of the attorneys in the lawsuit.
"The regulations would have put farmers in an untenable situation: Either terminate the majority of their existing workforce and let the crops die in the fields or disregard the rules and risk having to pay huge fines and penalties for 'knowingly' employing undocumented workers," Western Growers Association President Tom Nassif wrote in an editorial published last month in The Wall Street Journal.
"The DHS openly concedes our industry's reliance on falsely documented workers," wrote Mr. Nassif. "But like a physician who diagnoses an open wound but uses salt in place of sutures, DHS avoided the cure in favor of additional pain."
"If it is implemented, and if it does much or most of what the original August rule would have done, it will be devastating and nowhere more than in agriculture," said Craig Regelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform.
Mr. Regelbrugge said that the good news, if there is any, is that the redrafting of the regulation will take place "under court supervision."
This court decision comes as the agriculture coalition is trying to fight back "enforcement-only bills" pending in Congress without added reforms that could ease hiring of foreign-born labor. Two bills, H.R. 4088 and S. 2368, were introduced last month that would add new restrictions to securing borders and create an employer verification program.
"The bills' imposition of mandatory electronic employment eligibility verification will screen out the farm labor force without providing access to legal workers," according to a Dec. 4 letter to Congress signed by more than 60 agriculture groups. "If production is forced to move, most of the upstream and downstream jobs will disappear as well."
At least one Washington establishment has heard the outcry from agricultural businesses. The Washington Post wrote a Dec. 3 piece indicating that the now-stalled AgJobs legislation is "among the most critical" legislation actions necessary for immigration reform.
"Reports in the past year of vegetables and fruit rotting in fields and orchards for lack of hands to harvest them have failed to give Congress sufficient impetus to act. Look for the labor shortages, and instances of rotting produce, to grow more acute next year," the newspaper article said.
A coalition of labor and business groups has been trying to block DHS from applying the new rule and a federal judge agreed in October to put it on hold. At issue is a rule that would require employers to resolve discrepancies with employees whose records do not match those from the Social Security Administration within 90 days of receipt of a no-match letter. DHS said it plans to publish a revised proposal this month, followed by a final rule by the court deadline.
"The government saw the handwriting on the wall and abandoned its failed effort to defend this rule," said the American Civil Liberties Union's Lucas Guttentag, one of the attorneys in the lawsuit.
"The regulations would have put farmers in an untenable situation: Either terminate the majority of their existing workforce and let the crops die in the fields or disregard the rules and risk having to pay huge fines and penalties for 'knowingly' employing undocumented workers," Western Growers Association President Tom Nassif wrote in an editorial published last month in The Wall Street Journal.
"The DHS openly concedes our industry's reliance on falsely documented workers," wrote Mr. Nassif. "But like a physician who diagnoses an open wound but uses salt in place of sutures, DHS avoided the cure in favor of additional pain."
"If it is implemented, and if it does much or most of what the original August rule would have done, it will be devastating and nowhere more than in agriculture," said Craig Regelbrugge, co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform.
Mr. Regelbrugge said that the good news, if there is any, is that the redrafting of the regulation will take place "under court supervision."
This court decision comes as the agriculture coalition is trying to fight back "enforcement-only bills" pending in Congress without added reforms that could ease hiring of foreign-born labor. Two bills, H.R. 4088 and S. 2368, were introduced last month that would add new restrictions to securing borders and create an employer verification program.
"The bills' imposition of mandatory electronic employment eligibility verification will screen out the farm labor force without providing access to legal workers," according to a Dec. 4 letter to Congress signed by more than 60 agriculture groups. "If production is forced to move, most of the upstream and downstream jobs will disappear as well."
At least one Washington establishment has heard the outcry from agricultural businesses. The Washington Post wrote a Dec. 3 piece indicating that the now-stalled AgJobs legislation is "among the most critical" legislation actions necessary for immigration reform.
"Reports in the past year of vegetables and fruit rotting in fields and orchards for lack of hands to harvest them have failed to give Congress sufficient impetus to act. Look for the labor shortages, and instances of rotting produce, to grow more acute next year," the newspaper article said.
