According to The San Francisco Chronicle, Department of Homeland Security closed the 30-day window last week for public comments on its revised version of its "no match" rule.  Agency officials hope the new language will persuade a San Francisco federal judge to lift an injunction imposed in October and allow the regulations to go into affect.  "This is an important tool for employers to be sure they’re acting in good faith and an important tool of immigration enforcement," said Veronica Nur Valdes, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman.  

The no match rule would give employers 90 days to resolve discrepancies in their workers’ Social Security numbers, plus an additional three days for an employee to submit a new, valid Social Security number, before firing employees who can’t comply.  These employers who fail compliance could face fines or criminal penalties.  

Despite the retooling of the rule, the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant advocacy groups still oppose the bill; the same day public comment closed, the groups pointed to an analysis released by the US Chamber of Commerce suggesting that if the no match requirements take effect, they would cost American businesses over $1 billion a year and could force up to 65,000 legally authorized workers out of their jobs.  Critics also contend that this rule could put legal workers at risk by using an unreliable Social Security database that could get them fired before they can prove they are authorized to work. "It’s the equivalent of a massive tax on small business and an attack on US workers in an especially perilous time for the economy," said Lucas Guttentag, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.   

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Los Angeles civil rights attorney Peter Schey filed 114 federal claims last week on behalf of US citizens and permanent residents who were temporarily detained during a recent ICE raid at Micro Solutions Enterprises in Van Nuys.  The Los Angeles Times reports that Schey’s claims, carried out by his organization Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, are a new strategy to push federal immigration authorities to change the way they conduct workplace raids.  

On Feb. 7, armed ICE agents went into the company, blocked the exits and prevented all the employees from leaving while they carried out federal arrest warrants for eight people and a search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.  Those eight were arrested on criminal charges and 130 others were arrested on immigration violations.  Schey said immigration authorities treated US citizens and green card holders like suspected criminals without any reason to believe they had broken the law.  "That group detention is completely unconstitutional," said Schey.  "They have no probable cause, yet they come in like the Gestapo."  

The 114 legal workers are each seeking $5,000 in damages.  One of the 114, Clare Cox, a US citizen, said she heard the agents before she saw them.  Without identifying themselves, the agents told everyone to line up against the wall, she said.  For about 35 to 40 minutes, she was prohibited from leaving.  "I felt like we had no rights," Cox said, adding that she believed immigration authorities should have handled the arrests in a more diplomatic and less theatrical way: "I believe in immigration laws.  I believe in everyone being documented.  I don’t believe in these scare tactics."  

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The Associated Press reports that Border Patrol arrests have decreased 17 percent so far this year along the US-Mexico border.  The trend is a continuation of years prior; last fiscal year, border arrests decreased by 20 percent, and 8 percent the year before that.   

The continuous decrease in border arrests stems from stronger efforts by US authorities to crack down on drug smuggling and apprehension of potential terror suspects.  This crackdown has in turn likely caused a trend of labor shortages throughout the United States , with several states this fiscal year considering temporary-worker programs, especially for agricultural work.  

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The US government has issued a $45,000 fine against a consulting firm for placing online job ads for computer programmers that said only H-1B visa holder should apply.  According to The EETimes, the Department of Justice said iGate Mastech Inc., of Pittsburgh , place 30 online job ads in May and June 2006 asking only for H-1B visa holders.  A particular iGate ad, one for a Java Programmer, stated: "Only H-1s Apply, and should be willing to transfer H-1B."  

According to Ed Perkins, chair of an IEEE-USA committee on workplace policies, "this case illustrates the need for Congress to act against such egregious misuses of the H-1B visa program, by passing legislation such as Senators Durbin and Grassley’s H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act."   

The Programmers Guild, a lobbying group for software developers, claims it has tracked as many as 5,000 similar online ads from nearly 1,000 companies.  The iGate complaint was one of 300 the group has drafted, and one of about 100 filed with the DOJ.  The group claims that the majority of H-1B visa holders in technology fields typically are paid about 20 percent less than their domestic counterparts.