Sadly, with the unfortunate comments from our president assuring people that "illegals" will not be covered by health care reform measures, the stage has been set for people to attack immigrant populations as a whole instead of solve actual problems. I expect to see continued escalation of the below type of actions just as we saw some towns pass "no illegals" ordinances for renters until they were called out on it.
From the Daily Herald.
Elgin to audit more for illegal city workers
Elgin leaders recently conducted their first full-blown audit of a city-hired temporary agency to ensure it was not hiring illegal workers.
The inquiry of 44 people who performed temp work at a city-owned golf course from August 2008 through August 2009 did not turn up any undocumented workers, city officials said and documents showed.
But Elgin will look more to third-party firms to confirm that workers employed by companies hired by the city have 100 percent legal workers, Elgin Corporation Counsel William Cogley said.
"This seems to me to be an effective and efficient way to do it," he said.
The city spent about $700 for a Wisconsin-based human resources firm to double check that all workers at the temp agency had identification, their paperwork was in order and they didn't have "no match" letters, which are warnings issued by the federal government when a worker's Social Security number and name don't match in federal records.
The city investigated because members of the Association for Legal Americans said they had reliable information that undocumented workers were at the golf course.
Cogley said he did an investigation last year of a roofing firm doing repairs at the police station after receiving a complaint. And he had the purchasing department do an audit of a construction company that had landed a large city contract to do road reconstruction and resurfacing. No illegal workers were found in either case, Cogley said.
The latest incident has reinforced the resolve of at least one city council member that Elgin require all companies awarded city contracts to use the free, federal program called E-Verify.
"If you're going to pay somebody with tax dollars to do a job, they must, in my opinion, have a legal right to be here," Councilman John Prigge said.
E-Verify is an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration that allows employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees. It is free and voluntary, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services Web site.
As of Sept. 8, all federal contractors were required to use the system.
But Cogley said under Illinois state law it is illegal for a municipality to make using E-Verify a condition for a city contract or business license.
"We use it ourselves, but we can't require others to do it," he said.
David White, the Association for Legal Americans vice president, expressed frustration that the city's policy was activated only by complaints and not more proactive. He said the council attempts to placate AFLA members instead of enforcing real change.
"To us, it's a real slap in the face. To the community, it's a slap in the face," he said. "No one is policing our tax dollars."
White suggested a program in which companies doing work for the city send their employees to Elgin city hall to submit paperwork to get a city-issued work badge that must be displayed at all times.
But Councilman David Kaptain disagreed.
"You have to be fair about that. I don't think it should be=2 0a witch hunt. I think what we're doing is appropriate in this case," he said. "That's pushing it a bit too far in my opinion."
