Potential crackdown has employers scrambling

I recently wrote about the impact that SB529, Georgia's new illegal immigration legislation, is having on the state. In that post, I referred to the article in the AJC that discussed how the crackdown was adversely impacting the illegal immigrants and their confidence in finding safe haven here in Georgia. Now, in a new AJC article, we find out that employers around the state are getting nervous about the legislation and the prospect of actual immigration enforcement.

According to the article:

Recent immigration raids, a new state law in Georgia and the move toward federal reform have collided to create a nerve-racking spring for employers.

Companies have boosted requests for audits of their worker-verification paper trail by as much as 40 percent since last year, some local law firms say.

And this is what they're checking for:

One of their main worries boils down to the seemingly simple I-9 form, a requirement for any employee hired after the current immigration law took effect in 1986. Companies are looking to their attorneys to offer assurance that their paperwork is in order, and that has spurred a spike in demand for audits.

Lawyers say they've been poring over client I-9s — which could number in the tens of thousands for large employers — looking for missing information and suspicious information such as Social Security numbers listed as 000-00-0000. (There are more of those than you might think, lawyers say.)

Wait, weren't employers supposed to check for this type of OBVIOUS fraud BEFORE hiring Juan Doe (or John McDoe or John Doevovichski)? You mean they weren't actually even trying to follow the law? I'm SHOCKED. I'm just completely SHOCKED that unscrupulous employers would skirt our nation's laws in this manner. SHOCKED I tell you.

I'm still not entirely confident that our new state immigration laws are strict enough. And I'm even less confident that our federal government will do anything substantive about immigration enforcement -- especially on the employer side. Still, it gives me a warm fuzzy to know that the law-breaking employers are nervous about the prospects of being held accountable for their misdeeds.

According to Eileen Scofield, head of the immigration practice at Atlanta-based Alston & Bird:

"Our work tends to ebb and flow because it depends on what the government is making a hot button," Scofield said. "But I've got a feeling it will stay like this for a while."

Mrs. Scofield, I hope you're right. I really do hope you're right.