U.S. seeks to delay suit over worker crackdown

The Bush administration said it would modify its planned crackdown on U.S. companies that employ illegal immigrants, asking a federal judge to delay hearing a lawsuit brought by major American labor, business and farm organizations until the new strategy was completed.

In papers filed late Friday in San Francisco, Acting Assistant Atty. Gen. Jeffrey Bucholtz told U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer that the Homeland Security Department was making unspecified changes to its plan to pressure employers to fire as many as 8.7 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers.

A DHS spokesman declined to comment, but court papers asked the judge to delay the case until March 24, or until a new program is ready.

On Oct. 10, Breyer barred the government from mailing Social Security “no-match” letters to 140,000 U.S. employers, citing serious legal questions about requiring companies to resolve questions of their employees’ identities, fire them within 90 days, or face potential fines and criminal prosecution.

President Bush made the initiative a priority in August after the Senate killed his proposed overhaul of immigration laws. In issuing a preliminary injunction, however, the judge cited plaintiffs’ arguments that the Social Security Administration database included so many errors that using it to enforce immigration laws would cause “staggering” disruptions and would discriminate against tens of thousands of legal workers. The judge also said the government failed to weigh the cost of the regulation on small businesses.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lucas Guttentag, who argued the case with plaintiffs including the AFL-CIO, said, “DHS should finally abandon this illegal approach instead of repeating the same mistake.”