by Phil Kent, SLF President
As appeared in Investors Business Daily, October 23, 2002
There is good news for a Middle America continually disgusted for being forced to tolerate and underwrite unscrupulous employers who knowingly hire, or even smuggle in, illegal immigrants.
In September, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals - the same mercurial court that declared the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional - held that employees who lost jobs or wages because employers knowingly hired illegal aliens could sue those employers under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law.
The decision was based on a 1996 immigration law which added the crimes of harboring and repeatedly hiring illegals as predicate acts for prosecution under RICO. (The RICO law has been used to successfully undermine crime syndicates by allowing injured plaintiffs to collect huge damages in civil lawsuits).
At the time Congress passed the immigration law, sponsors reasoned that if the motivation for employers to knowingly hire illegals is to save money, then exposing them to hefty fines or prison if caught would be a major deterrent. And unlike the government, which gets political pressure to maintain an open border policy, displaced American workers have nothing to stop them from going after the "cost-cutting" employer.
That's why, in September 2000, a group of citizen and legal immigrant workers alleged that two Washington state fruit-packing companies conspired with a labor contractor to hire illegal aliens to depress their wages. The Ninth Circuit, in its September 3 decision in Mendoza v. Zirkle Fruit Company, agreed that the damage suffered by legal immigrant-plaintiffs Olivia Mendoza, Juana Mendiola, and the class of agricultural workers, was "direct," which is a crucial threshold to reach under RICO. The judges underscored, "We are unable to discern a more direct victim of illegal conduct...Congress contemplated the enforcement of the immigration laws through lawsuits like this one."
It should also be noted that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in 2001 that, under RICO, a Connecticut janitorial firm had standing to sue a competitor who gained unfair advantage through systematic hiring of illegal immigrants.
These two cases can only help de-magnetize the long-powerful magnet dangled by unscrupulous employers to lure foreigners with cheap wages. Also, look for the bigger businesses to be put in the crosshairs. For example, the notorious Tyson Food Inc. - already being prosecuted by the feds for smuggling in cheap illegal labor - should be a tempting target for suits by displaced American workers and competitors injured by unenforced immigration laws.
These positive developments are augmented by more good news from an unlikely source - the U.S. Social Security Administration. Starting in April 2002, Social Security revved up its program of notifying employers when there is a problem matching employees' names with Social Security numbers. This year, a whopping 750,000 letters have been sent to companies, compared with 110,000 letters in 2001. The no-match letters point out discrepancies and ask employers they be rectified in 60 days.
The result is that illegals are starting to leave their jobs and return to their native countries. The Atlanta Journal & Constitution reports that, in the Atlanta metro area, "thousands of undocumented workers have left." So, even though the Immigration & Naturalization Service is not currently up to the job, Middle America can still take heart: Long overdue pressure from the courts and the Social Security Administration is starting to turn the screws on companies who love to hire illegal immigrants.
