Senate votes to keep Bush era illegal worker rule
WASHINGTON — The Senate wants to force the Homeland Security Department to stick with a proposed Bush administration policy requiring employers to fire immigrant workers whose names don’t match their Social Security numbers.
By voice vote Thursday, the Senate approved an amendment to stop the department’s plan to dump the so-called “no-match” rule.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., sponsored the amendment to the Homeland Security Department spending bill. The measure forbids the department from using any money to cancel the rule.
The 2007 policy was designed to root out undocumented workers through so-called no-match letters, which the Social Security Administration sends employers when a worker’s name and Social Security number don’t match in the government’s database.
There are various reasons for a mismatch: Records are not updated when a woman changes her name after marrying or after a person becomes a U.S. citizen, typos and errors, or a person submits a fake or someone else’s Social Security number.
Vitter called the vote “a message to the Obama administration that we will not allow weak immigration laws.” He called illegal immigration a serious concern for the country and said “we should be doing all that we can to fight this growing problem.”
Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler said the Senate endorsement of Vitter’s measure prevents real progress on immigration enforcement and is “a reflection of the old administration’s strategy: all show, no substance.”
In contrast, the Obama administration is trying to implement effective enforcement, he said. “We hope that the smarter strategy will prevail in the end, because the country deserves a system that works,” Chandler said.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit that prevented the rule from being implemented. Employers, business groups, labor unions and others also opposed the rule.
“Social Security no-match letters were never designed to be immigration enforcement tools, and they cannot and will not solve the problem of illegal immigration,” said Joanne Lin, ACLU legislative counsel.
The House version of the spending bill does not include the provision. A conference committee made up of members of both chambers will iron out differences in the different versions of the bill.
The bill S. 1298.
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