News

The ballyhooed Arizona employer sanctions law that went into effect on Jan. 1 has been largely unused, a new University of Arizona study found.

The 27,617 firms signed up for E-Verify is up from nearly 19,000 in July 2007, but still represents only 5.6 percent of the estimated number of total firms in the state, Gans found.http://www.azstarnet.com/news/271160

By Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official.

The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants.

In December 2005, Dennis Hastert, then House speaker, pandering to the hard right of the GOP, allowed Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) to push through the House a truly draconian piece of legislation that would have turned all undocumented immigrants and the priests and nuns who serve them into felons. ...

Federal immigration officials in April arrested more than 280 workers at Pilgrim’s Pride plants in five states, charging them with identity theft to obtain employment. Pilgrim’s Pride was not charged in the case.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6141828.html

By R.G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle