What to do with immigration?

I heard back from J. Darrell Shaw, controller for Elite Manufacturing Technologies, a metal fabricating company in Bloomingdale, Ill., earlier this year with the simple question in an e-mail, “Heard anything yet?”

The answer was no. After I wrote an editorial in The FABRICATOR (October 2007) about the Department of Homeland Security’s intention to start weeding out illegal immigrants in the U.S. work force by more closely examining Social Security numbers, I didn’t hear from a single fabricator worried about the problem. Shaw said he was concerned because, if his company were targeted as one that needs to check identification papers more closely, his heavily Hispanic work force might get spooked and go to work for the competitor down the street. Not that Elite Manufacturing did anything wrong—the company checks the Social Security numbers and fills out the I-9 forms and other documents properly. Elite could end up a victim in someone else’s crime.

Recent arrests in the Seattle area jarred this memory. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Where did this bureaucratic department come from?) targeted an aircraft component manufacturing facility in Arlington, Wash., and arrested 32 undocumented workers. Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies was targeted because it is deemed a work site where sensitive information related to national security is accessible.

It’s not only companies doing business with the government that are being targeted. On June 30 about 50 police officers and ICE officials hauled off 45 suspected undocumented workers at an Annapolis, Md., painting company. “Illegal means illegal.

There must be respect for the law,” said John Leopold, Anne Arundel County executive.

The George W. Bush administration ratcheted up the fight against illegal immigrants in the U.S. in early June when he issued an order requiring all companies doing business with the federal government to use an online government verification tool to check the Social Security numbers of all workers. That means the contract engineer working on a new missile program or the lawn maintenance worker trimming bushes at NASA offices.

Critics of the president’s order believe the checks do little to weed out immigrants, especially those with stolen Social Security numbers. In fact, critics suggest the order only will force more immigrants to acquire false papers.

In the meantime, many companieslike Elite Manufacturing are walking a tightrope. They are doing the best they can to meet federal guidelines, but hope one mistake doesn’t turn into a fatal fall.

The illegal immigration issue was hot several months ago, particularly during the early months of the presidential primaries. The slowing economy has probably taken center stage as issue of the day. Nonetheless, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., need to address the issue and come to a resolution so companies can proceed with some certainty about their work force.

Many voters view any compromise on this issue as a defeat. Lawmakers should forget them.

Less yakking, more action. I thnk that’s what the populace wants to see on this issue and many others.

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