Prince William Dems: Go After "Illegal Employers"

By: Lowell
Published On: 9/20/2007 12:47:46 PM

Exactly, go after the illegal EMPLOYERS for a change, instead of what Republicans love to do, which is to look the other way and let them completely off the hook.  Also, how about pointing out the huge sums of money from those illegal employers given overwhelmingly to Republican candidates?  How about the fact that those illegal employers exploit cheap, undocumented immigrant labor to boost their profits and to bust unions while they're at it?  How about focusing, for a change, on where the problem really is - the corporations and the Republican politicians who love them?

PW Democratic Candidates Release "Enforce Our Laws" Plan on Illegal Immigration

10-point plan would step up enforcement, punish illegal employers

WOODBRIDGE - Three Delegate candidates from eastern Prince William County announced a joint plan Tuesday that would beef up enforcement of laws to crack down on illegal immigration.

"Enforce Our Laws," a 10-point plan to crack down on illegal immigration, focuses on punishing businesses that hire illegal immigrants and enforcing the immigration laws that are currently on the books.

The plan was released Tuesday by House of Delegate candidates Bill Day (HD31), Paul Nichols (HD51) and Chris Brown (HD52). The three candidates' districts represent eastern Prince William County.

"Every day in Prince William County, we feel the effects of the Republicans in Richmond failing to ensure that our laws are enforced," said Brown, who is running in the 52nd House District against Del. Jeff Frederick.


"Enforcement is absolutely crucial to stopping illegal immigration," added Bill Day, who is running in the 31st House District against Del. Scott Lingamfelter. "We need to enforce the laws and we need to start now."

The 10-point "Enforce Our Laws" plan includes: five steps (#1-5) that crack down on employers and landlords who profit off of illegal immigration; and five steps (#6-10) that strengthen current immigration laws by raising penalties and increasing resources for enforcement.

The plan would:

  1. Punish employers that knowingly hire illegal immigrants by imposing fines up to $10,000 per illegal employee.
  2. Give employers the tools to assess the legal status of their employees.
  3. Make a federal conviction for hiring illegal aliens grounds for suspension of a Virginia business license.
  4. Allow enforcement officials to work with the Virginia Employment Commission to verify employment status.
  5. Fine landlords for knowingly renting property to illegal immigrants.
  6. Cut off in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.
  7. Increase punishment for counterfeit drivers' licenses and identification fraud.
  8. Increase resources for state and local enforcement officials to make sure immigration laws are enforced.
  9. Check the legal resident status of all inmates currently in Virginia jails.
  10. Confirm the legal presence of all persons lawfully convicted of a crime in the U.S. via the U.S. ICE database.

Brown said that the first step is to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants in Virginia. Under the plan, companies caught with illegal employees could receive fines or have their Virginia business licenses suspended. The plan also provides tools for the companies to check whether their employees are legal.

"It's clear that President Bush and the Federal Government have let us down when it comes to illegal immigration, leaving the states to clean up their mess," said Brown. "We can do that by cracking down on the companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. There have to be serious penalties for breaking the law to make a few extra bucks."

Nichols, who is running for Delegate in the 51st House District, said that the "Enforce Our Laws" plan sends a clear message that lawbreaking will not be tolerated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to punishing illegal employers, the plan increases resources for local law enforcement to crack down on illegal immigration.

"We're a nation of laws, but too often our police don't have the power to enforce them," Nichols said. "The 'Enforce Our Laws' plan will work to fund our local police departments so that they have the resources to combat the growing problem of illegal immigration in our communities."

Comments



Donor lists (True Blue - 9/20/2007 2:42:17 PM)
Has anyone ever tried to match up political donor lists with lists of companies that have had enforcementaction taken against them for employing illegals?

Isn't Faisal Gill some kind of immigration lawyer?



I've done some.... (Lowell - 9/20/2007 3:41:00 PM)
...but there's a lot more work to be done on this.  Any volunteers?  :)


Parts 1 and 2 of this plan must be done together (Glant - 9/21/2007 9:17:37 AM)
At Mark Warner's Pig Roast last week, I overheard a small business owner talking to Governor Kaine (that sentence is probably my personal record for name dropping).  Anyway, the business owner seemed genuinely frightened.  He wanted to comply with all requirements for verifying the status of his employees, but said that the current system was just inadequate.

Without an adequate verification system, I am afraid that many employers will start to avoid hiring hispanic workers and other minorities and our "land of opportunity" will become a distant memory.