The Kansas City Eagle reports.

National Public Radio reports

Two years ago, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new strategy for immigration enforcement. It said it would start bringing criminal charges against companies that employ illegal workers. Since then, there's been a dramatic increase in raids on businesses, but few prosecutions against employers.

The hearing will take place on May 6th at 10 am eastern and is described as covering

...the current E-Verify pilot program and proposed expansions, including the impact of increased immigration-related workloads on SSA’s ability to serve seniors, people with disabilities, and survivors of deceased workers. The hearing also will examine the potential impact on businesses and employees; the technical and implementation challenges of expansion; and the data security implications of having personal information in the SSA database accessible to six million businesses nationwide.

This looks like a first. Protesters in New York City rallied against Dunkin' Donuts use of the federal electronic employment verification system.

A vote on a bill to require E-Verify be used by all employers has been pushed back a week.

The bill generally liberalizes some of the toughest provisions in the sanctions bill passed last year including

- stipulating that a violation at one site for employers with multiple work sites will not affect other work sites;

- allowing a good faith defense for employers for workers hired before January 1st;

- making it clear that independent contractors don't count as illegal employees; and

- extending the sanctions rules to employers that pay cash (and adding a fine of up to $5000 for such employers)

The issue remains whether to allow proper completion of an I-9 to be a defense against sanctions or whether employers should have to use E-Verify.

The Arizona Republic reports that there have no complaints filed outside of Phoenix. And even in Phoenix, complaints have not yet led to prosecution (though five employers are under investigation).

The bill passed by a margin of 84 to 16 and now heads to the Iowa Senate. The bill mandates immigrants have an Iowa issued identification document or one issued by a neighboring state.

Lawmakers are differing over whether they want to mandate using E-Verify or not.

More on Democratic Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney's efforts to pass a sanctions law in New Jersey.

Now that employers are starting to get tough on checking that employees' social security numbers match their names, some employees that are illegally in the country are getting around that by simply making sure that their names actually do match their numbers. How do they do it? They steal (or borrow since there may be some consent involved) the identity of a legal worker.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement just conducted a sweep of five chicken plants yesterday and arrested 280 workers in one such alleged identity theft scheme. The employer, Pilgrim's Pride, cooperated with ICE officials and no company employees were charged. If this sounds familiar, it is is similar to what happened in 2006 at the Swift meatpacking plants around the country.

I certainly don't condone this. But I will say that as the pressure on workers mounts, you should expect to see more of this as well as more employers paying workers in cash. And a system that encourages identity theft or working under the table is bad public policy. We need immigration enforcement. But until we deal with the question of why employers and employees are willing to such risks, we're never going to solve the problem. The reason this is happening is pretty straightforward - we lack a legal way to meet the demands of the market. A tiny percentage of workers and employers might choose to break the law even if a legal and manageable way to import workers was available. But most would not. Until we have a workable guest worker program that matches up supply and demand, we will continue to see a black market.

The New York Times is reporting on the sweeps as well.

The NY Times has an excellent editorial this morning discussing an issue I've raised many times before - the flawed databases that are the backbone of the E-Verify and Social Security No-Match systems. While the case for using the systems is logical, the assumption has to always be that the systems actually are accurate. And therein lies the problem. If millions of legal workers - many of them US citizens - are falsely identified as being illegally in the US, we've got a problem. If the Social Security Administration or Department of Homeland Security had the resources to actually clear up discrepancies in a timely manner, a small false positive rate would be acceptable. But they don't. Today they only have to deal with a small number of people trying to make corrections and it can take months to solve the problem. Now multiply this group by 2000% or so.

I have mentioned a simple solution to this that will allow both E-Verify and the No-Match rule to expand like the government is hoping. When a worker lodges a protest with SSA or DHS that the system has falsely labeled them as unauthorized, then that the worker should be authorized to continue working until DHS or SSA actually gets to the bottom of the error. In other words, put the burden back on the government to actually deal with the mess they most likely created.

Some may be concerned that illegal workers would use this as an opportunity to continue working illegally. However, the reality is that when an employer alerts an employee to a discrepancy, the illegally present worker almost always takes off. The odds of an illegal worker going to DHS or the SSA to try and lodge a protest - and risking being picked up and deported - are pretty remote.

ICE is charging the 11 owners with criminally harboring illegally present immigrants and administratively charging 45 workers.

But time is running short in this legislative session. There are just a few weeks left.

14 of California's 30 GOP Assembly members introduced a package of 23 bills targeting illegal immigration including several that impose sanctions on employers. The sanctions bills include

AB 107, introduced by Cameron Smyth, R- Santa Clarita, requires bidders for state contracts to certify that they do not employ "unauthorized aliens."

AB 1615, introduced by Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster, would bar state agencies from awarding contracts to bidders that knowingly hire "unauthorized aliens."

AB 2059, introduced by Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, would prohibit state agencies from awarding public works project contracts, contracts to acquire goods and services and for the acquisition of information technology to bidders that hire persons in the country illegally.

AB 2102, introduced by Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel, would require state agencies to use the E-Verify electronic employment verification system.

AB 2421, introduced by Republican Caucus Chair Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, would require the revocation of business licenses of employers who hire unauthorized aliens in California.

Patricia Martinez, the director of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families and a member for three years of the Cabinet of Governor Carcieri, last week blamed the governor for creating a climate of hatred across the state and the order is "really slamming immigrants." The Governor's recent executive order targets employers that hire illegally present workers.

A day later, Martinez issued an apology saying "the executive order is the first step in the right direction toward immigration reform."

What a difference a day makes.

While state legislatures don't seem to have a problem passing grossly unconstitutional bills on immigration, state attorneys general seem to take their oath to uphold the Constitution a little more seriously. Tennessee's Attorney General is the latest to weigh in.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raises the questions in a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The SAVE Act would mandate E-Verify be used right away and would also massively increase spending on immigration enforcement. The Congressional Budget Office has put a price tag on the bill - $40 Billion. Various groups are citing the report to criticize the proposed legislation. Today the ACLU weighs in. And yesterday, The Hill reported that "Blue Dog" conservative Democrats are worried about the fiscal impact of the bill.

Though the ICE press release does not state the resort, local media reports the targeted employer was the Lansdowne Resort near Leesburg. The arrests were of employees only and are the follow up from a June 2007 I-9 audit. The pattern of an ICE raid following an I-9 audit has become more pronounced of late. The arrests were administrative in nature and will result in removals. No criminal arrests were made of either company officials or employees.

Expect to hear more of these stories.

The Tennessee Senate passed a bill yesterday that would require the state to keep secret the identity of the agency, officer, employee or entity filing complaints under the state's new business license employer sanctions law. The Senate did, however, strip out a provision that would have protected the secrecy of lawmakers who now will be known to accused business owners.

The Arizona House has approved a measure that seeks to offer some good faith protections for employers attempting to comply with the state's tough new sanctions rules. The new bill clarifies that the law only applies to new hires and not to people hired before the law took force.

The Missouri Senate approved an employer sanctions bill that would require employers receiving state contracts or grants to use E-Verify. The bill also contains a provision suspending business licenses for employers knowing hiring illegally present immigrants. The bill must pass an additional time before it heads to the Missouri House for consideration.

The House and Senate differ over whether all employers should have to use E-Verify or just those doing business with the state.

The other 85% are presumably lawbreakers.

Representatives of 50 community groups have sent a letter of protest to Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri over his recent executive order imposing sanctions on employers hiring illegally present immigrants.

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