Border and Enforcement News

Due to an ongoing lawsuit from a coalition of labor and business organizations, the Social Security Administration announced last month that that it will delay mailing out ‘no-match’ letters this year to some 138,000 employers nationwide, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.  The rule, first proposed by the Department of Homeland Security in August, gives employers 90 days to terminate workers whose paperwork could not be reconciled once they receive the no-match letter.   

The rule is on hold after a federal district judge in California issued an injunction in October.  The case is currently on appeal to the Ninth District Court of Appeals.  Labor groups, including the AFL-CIO, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union argued in the lawsuit that legal workers and others might be fired unfairly.  They also said the government did not consider the impact on small businesses.   

The suit criticized the number of Social Security mismatches in the DHS database, which may target innocent citizens instead of the undocumented immigrants that DHS seek out.  As a result, DHS said they would revise the rule.  "We are in no way abandoning the no-match rule," DHS spokeswoman Veronica Valdes said.  

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In the year since Costa Mesa became the first Southern California city to have a federal immigration officer at its jail full time, 360 suspected undocumented immigrants who lived in the city have been deported, the Los Angeles Times reports.  The crackdown, introduced in 2005 by Mayor Allan Mansoor, came from support from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who offered officers to check the immigration status of its inmates.  Following Costa Mesa ’s lead, Anaheim , Fullerton and Los Angeles County jails now also have ICE agents.  

According to ICE statistics, 520 suspects in the Costa Mesa jail facilities were referred to the agency, and that the 360 of those deported came from these referrals. An additional 114 are "going through proceedings that will lead to their removal," said Jim Hayes, ICE director for Southern California .  

Some immigrants in Costa Mesa , including many immigrants here legally, say they now fear city police and know of others who have moved because of it.  Eduardo Ramirez, manager of a Costa Mesa store that caters to immigrants, said many of his customers are nervous; he asked that his store’s name not be published.  "They think that there’s a greater chance that they will be picked up by police, and that’s true for those who are legal and illegal."  

Since 2006, the City Council has focused on undocumented immigration.  In that year, it closed the Costa Mesa Job Center , which helped immigrants find work, disbanded the 18-year-old Human Relations Committee, designed to address acts of discrimination, because it cost $3,700 annually and, according to council members, was too liberal.

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