TITLE 8 > CHAPTER 12 > SUBCHAPTER II > Part VIII > § 1324c

It is unlawful for any person or entity knowingly—
(1) to forge, counterfeit, alter, or falsely make any document for the purpose of satisfying a requirement of this chapter or to obtain a benefit under this chapter,
(2) to use, attempt to use, possess, obtain, accept, or receive or to provide any forged, counterfeit, altered, or falsely made document in order to satisfy any requirement of this chapter or to obtain a benefit under this chapter,
(3) to use or attempt to use or to provide or attempt to provide any document lawfully issued to or with respect to a person other than the possessor (including a deceased individual) for the purpose of satisfying a requirement of this chapter or obtaining a benefit under this chapter,
(4) to accept or receive or to provide any document lawfully issued to or with respect to a person other than the possessor (including a deceased individual) for the purpose of complying with section 1324a (b) of this title or obtaining a benefit under this chapter, or
(5) to prepare, file, or assist another in preparing or filing, any application for benefits under this chapter, or any document required under this chapter, or any document submitted in connection with such application or document, with knowledge or in reckless disregard of the fact that such application or document was falsely made or, in whole or in part, does not relate to the person on whose behalf it was or is being submitted, or
(6)
(A) to present before boarding a common carrier for the purpose of coming to the United States a document which relates to the alien’s eligibility to enter the United States, and
(B) to fail to present such document to an immigration officer upon arrival at a United States port of entry.
(b) Exception
This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the United States, a State, or a subdivision of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States, or any activity authorized under chapter 224 of title 18.
(c) Construction
Nothing in this section shall be construed to diminish or qualify any of the penalties available for activities prohibited by this section but proscribed as well in title 18.
(d) Enforcement
(1) Authority in investigations
In conducting investigations and hearings under this subsection—
(A) immigration officers and administrative law judges shall have reasonable access to examine evidence of any person or entity being investigated,
(B) administrative law judges, may, if necessary, compel by subpoena the attendance of witnesses and the production of evidence at any designated place or hearing, and
(C) immigration officers designated by the Commissioner may compel by subpoena the attendance of witnesses and the production of evidence at any designated place prior to the filing of a complaint in a case under paragraph (2).
In case of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpoena lawfully issued under this paragraph and upon application of the Attorney General, an appropriate district court of the United States may issue an order requiring compliance with such subpoena and any failure to obey such order may be punished by such court as a contempt thereof.
(2) Hearing
(A) In general
Before imposing an order described in paragraph (3) against a person or entity under this subsection for a violation of subsection (a) of this section, the Attorney General shall provide the person or entity with notice and, upon request made within a reasonable time (of not less than 30 days, as established by the Attorney General) of the date of the notice, a hearing respecting the violation.
(B) Conduct of hearing
Any hearing so requested shall be conducted before an administrative law judge. The hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the requirements of section 554 of title 5. The hearing shall be held at the nearest practicable place to the place where the person or entity resides or of the place where the alleged violation occurred. If no hearing is so requested, the Attorney General’s imposition of the order shall constitute a final and unappealable order.
(C) Issuance of orders
If the administrative law judge determines, upon the preponderance of the evidence received, that a person or entity has violated subsection (a) of this section, the administrative law judge shall state his findings of fact and issue and cause to be served on such person or entity an order described in paragraph (3).
(3) Cease and desist order with civil money penalty
With respect to a violation of subsection (a) of this section, the order under this subsection shall require the person or entity to cease and desist from such violations and to pay a civil penalty in an amount of—
(A) not less than $250 and not more than $2,000 for each document that is the subject of a violation under subsection (a) of this section, or
(B) in the case of a person or entity previously subject to an order under this paragraph, not less than $2,000 and not more than $5,000 for each document that is the subject of a violation under subsection (a) of this section.
In applying this subsection in the case of a person or entity composed of distinct, physically separate subdivisions each of which provides separately for the hiring, recruiting, or referring for employment, without reference to the practices of, and not under the control of or common control with, another subdivision, each such subdivision shall be considered a separate person or entity.
(4) Administrative appellate review
The decision and order of an administrative law judge shall become the final agency decision and order of the Attorney General unless either
(A) within 30 days, an official delegated by regulation to exercise review authority over the decision and order modifies or vacates the decision and order, or
(B) within 30 days of the date of such a modification or vacation (or within 60 days of the date of decision and order of an administrative law judge if not so modified or vacated) the decision and order is referred to the Attorney General pursuant to regulations, in which case the decision and order of the Attorney General shall become the final agency decision and order under this subsection.
(5) Judicial review
A person or entity adversely affected by a final order under this section may, within 45 days after the date the final order is issued, file a petition in the Court of Appeals for the appropriate circuit for review of the order.
(6) Enforcement of orders
If a person or entity fails to comply with a final order issued under this section against the person or entity, the Attorney General shall file a suit to seek compliance with the order in any appropriate district court of the United States. In any such suit, the validity and appropriateness of the final order shall not be subject to review.
(7) Waiver by Attorney General
The Attorney General may waive the penalties imposed by this section with respect to an alien who knowingly violates subsection (a)(6) of this section if the alien is granted asylum under section 1158 of this title or withholding of removal under section 1231 (b)(3) of this title.
(e) Criminal penalties for failure to disclose role as document preparer
(1) Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the Service, knowingly and willfully fails to disclose, conceals, or covers up the fact that they have, on behalf of any person and for a fee or other remuneration, prepared or assisted in preparing an application which was falsely made (as defined in subsection (f) of this section) for immigration benefits, shall be fined in accordance with title 18, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, and prohibited from preparing or assisting in preparing, whether or not for a fee or other remuneration, any other such application.
(2) Whoever, having been convicted of a violation of paragraph (1), knowingly and willfully prepares or assists in preparing an application for immigration benefits pursuant to this chapter, or the regulations promulgated thereunder, whether or not for a fee or other remuneration and regardless of whether in any matter within the jurisdiction of the Service, shall be fined in accordance with title 18, imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both, and prohibited from preparing or assisting in preparing any other such application.
(f) Falsely make
For purposes of this section, the term “falsely make” means to prepare or provide an application or document, with knowledge or in reckless disregard of the fact that the application or document contains a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or material representation, or has no basis in law or fact, or otherwise fails to state a fact which is material to the purpose for which it was submitted. Ask

Last week, Jessica Colotl, the illegal alien student KSU welcomed with open arms, conducted a press conference after bonding out of the Cobb County Jail. The press conference was held in the Plaza Fiesta flea market on Buford Highway.

All of the major Atlanta networks (My Fox Atlanta, CBS 46, NBC 11Alive, ABC/WSB-TV) were in attendance, in addition to Spanish language press.

As promised in their late Thursday press release, GALEO (Ga. Association of Latino Elected Officials), GLAHR (Ga. Latino Alliance for Human Rights), SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center), Cobb Immigrant Alliance, ACLU of Ga. and Ms. Colotl’s criminal and immigration attorneys were there to call for an end to the very successful 287g program. After all, this program was responsible for the discovery of Jessica Colotl’s illegal alien status.

Prior to the beginning of the press conference, Jerry Gonzalez (Executive Director, GALEO) left the stage to take a picture of me with his camera phone & to point out to a Spanish language press person that I was there and I am with the Dustin Inman Society.

Jerry Gonzalez’s livelihood is from the crime of illegal immigration. I am a volunteer who is passionate about her country. The idea that Jerry stopped everything that he was doing to point me out, shows that Jerry considers me a threat to his illegal immigration agenda and I consider that a badge of honor. It means I am very effective and he is very scared.

During the press conference, Ms. Colotl’s attorneys deflected reporters’ questions about driving without a license, giving the police a false address and breaking the 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act. When asked how she was treated at the detention center, Ms. Colotl stated, “I was treated like a criminal or worse because according to the system I was a threat to the nation but I don’t see it that way.”

There were calls to end the 287g program in Cobb and Gwinnett Counties. Sheriff Neil Warren (Cobb) and Sheriff Butch Conway (Gwinnett) were accused of racial profiling, an abuse of power and perpetuating open hostilities toward Latinos and immigrants. Jerry further stated that the 287g program was “not be used to track down criminals but to track down people like Jessica.”

Rich Pelligrino, Cobb Immigrant Alliance, accused those in elected office of “hiding behind a badge or hiding behind elected offices” of “bullying” people like Jessica. Pelligrino stated that he would be coming forward, this week, with proof that Sheriff Neil Warren has been selectively enforcing the law. He also stated that he would be calling for the resignation of Sheriff Warren.

Marietta Daily Journal editorial

The Colotl Debacle: System is ‘messed up’ – and it’s our fault
May 18, 2010 12:00

“I think it’s really sad. … I never thought that I was going to be caught up in this messed-up system, so I’m just hoping for the best and waiting for something positive such as the Dream Act to be passed sometime in the future.”

– KSU student Jessica Colotl at her press conference on Friday

“MESSED-UP SYSTEM”? MS. COLOTL IS RIGHT. This is a messed-up system we have here in these United States. Just consider:

This is a system in which we have fairly rigorous laws aimed at preventing illegals from entering the country. But those laws are ignored as often as they are enforced. They are scrupulously upheld against those trying to emigrate here from Europe, Canada and most of Asia and Africa, but are only thinly upheld against those who come from south of the border. In fact, if you can make it across the border without getting caught, you can pretty much consider yourself “home free.”

Take the case of Ms. Colotl, for example. Her parents brought her here as a young girl from Mexico, and lived more or less openly afterward. She received a free education – a good one; so good, in fact, that she graduated with honors and, to her credit, was admitted to Kennesaw State University. Many would say that a system that turns a blind eye to those who enter illegally, yet educates them and admits them, no questions asked, to one of the state’s best colleges, and at a reduced, in-state tuition fee, is “messed up.”

It is messed up, indeed, and that is not the fault of Ms. Colotl or even of those who are using her as a pawn to make the case for softening our immigration laws even further, to the consistency of room-temperature Jell-O. No, the fault for our “messed up system” rests firmly on our own shoulders. Too many Americans for too long were too busy to pay attention to what has been happening along our Southern border, and the ramifications of that flood.

A disproportionate share of the blame also must accrue to our politicians in Washington who for years looked the other way as illegals poured in, and who now are trying to cozy up to the illegals and their supporters in hopes of winning the support of that ever-growing bloc of voters.

And the other big share of the blame is on the shoulders of businessmen, especially factory owners, farmers and builders, who have come to rely on the cheap labor of the illegals, and who as a result, have virtually run native-born Americans out of certain businesses and trades. And it is the taxpayer who is left to clean up most of the mess, paying school, health and other costs for the illegals and their families.

SO NOW WE HAVE MS. COLOTL, a Mexican citizen raised in metro Atlanta whose status as an illegal alien came to light after she was stopped for a traffic violation on the KSU campus in March and who is fast becoming a cause celebre in liberal circles as a “victim” of unscrupulous racists and bigots in the immigration wars, who hate anyone and everyone with brown skin. But as usual, the liberals have it wrong. Those who have been so loudly critical of Ms. Colotl, and of KSU’s handling of the affair, and of the Board of Regents’ “Who cares?” approach to the citizenship status of its students, could care less about Ms. Colotl’s color. It’s her right, or lack thereof, to be in the country that matters. Ms. Colotl has shown an admirable desire to improve herself and has excelled in the classroom. Her appetite for education is one we wish more Georgia citizens would aspire to.

But her sense of entitlement – her feeling that she is owed the opportunity to go to college here and deserves to be granted U.S. citizenship – undercuts the feelings of sympathy that her strivings might otherwise engender. Episodes like this make it less likely, not more, that political compromise on a “path to citizenship” for illegals will ever be paved.

Unfortunately, Ms. Colotl’s supporters, knowing the law is not on their side, have few weapons other than their penchant for making unwarranted personal attacks. Exhibit A is their pathetic attempt to portray Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren as unscrupulous, calling him “Wild West Warren.” They claim Colotl is a victim of racial profiling, which Warren has forcefully rebutted. It was not his fault that Ms. Colotl was driving in such a way as to attract the attention of KSU campus police. And it was not his fault that she gave false information to police. If anything, Warren deserves the thanks and support of Cobb residents in his stalwart efforts to uphold our laws.

SO YES, MS. COLOTL is correct. We have a messed-up system, just not in the way she envisions it. The “Colotl debacle” offers abundant evidence of that – and we don’t advise anyone to hold their breath while waiting for Washington to fix it.

Southern Political Report

New InsiderAdvantage poll: Georgians want Jessica Colotl deported

By Gary Reese

May 18, 2010 —

Most Georgia voters who know about the he unfolding story of Kennesaw State University student Jessica Colotl want the 21-year-old illegal alien deported to her native Mexico. That’s according to a new poll conducted by InsiderAdvantage for Atlanta’s WSB-TV/Channel 2.

The poll asked: “Recently a student at Kennesaw State University who entered the United States at the age of 10 from Mexico and who is now 21 has been in the news. Are you…”

Aware of story and support efforts to deport her: 46%
Aware of story and oppose efforts to deport her: 16%
Not aware of the story and so have no opinion: 38%

The poll was conducted by InsiderAdvantage for WSB on May 17, 2010. The margin of error is plus or minus 4%. The data have been weighted for age, race, gender and political affiliation.

Colotl has become national news, all the more because her story has cropped up right when America is intensely debating the issue of illegal immigration, and particularly the new law passed in Arizona to deal with illegals.

Colotl was arrested in March in Georgia for driving without a license. Immigration officials later placed her in a detention center in Alabama. She was released after much effort on her behalf by school officials, sorority sisters and others at Kennesaw. Now federal officials say they won’t pursue her case until after she completes her college studies.

But Cobb County law enforcement officials obtained a warrant for Colotl’s arrest. Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren said she lied about her address when she was originally booked into jail – a felony in Georgia. So her legal problems continue, and her career at Kennesaw may still be in jeopardy. Colotl turned herself in on May 14, and was later released on bail.

Whatever happens legally, Colotl’s story has become a political hot potato in Georgia and across the nation. Much media fanfare has been raised on her behalf, but most Georgians aren’t sympathizing with her.

Significantly, opposition to Colotl staying in America isn’t coming predominantly from the political right. While 46% of all Georgia voters support deportation, the number swells to 67% among voters who label themselves as independents. This startling number may tell us about more than just the illegal immigration issue; it may reveal broader implications about the political landscape in Georgia, the South and the nation as we head into the contentious 2010 election season.

Said Matt Towery, CEO of InsiderAdvantage and a national newspaper columnist with Creators Syndicate: “The poll indicates that independent voters are more upset about issues such as illegal immigration than are established Republican voters.

“The poll’s crosstabs show that self-identified ‘independent’ voters are far more aware of this issue, and are more likely to want a strict response to situations such as Jessica Colotl’s, than are even more partisan voters.

“It also suggests that GOP primaries may be filled with voters who do not describe themselves as Republicans, and who may be moving to the more conservative side of issues,” said Towery.

HERE

Associated Press

Pro-amnesty cheerleaders vow civil disobedience

The leader of a coalition of grass-roots groups says the organizations are launching a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to force political leaders to reform immigration laws. — The coalition’s leader, Deepak Bhargava, says more groups will be joining in civil disobedience leading to an escalation of the protests in Arizona on May 29.

HERE

My guest column on Insider Advantage Georgia today. Insider Advantage is a subscription Website. HERE

We are grateful for the space and thank Insider Advantage editor, Mr. Dick Pettys for the repost permission.

Insider Advantage Georgia

Guest Column – D.A. King:
Regents The Real Villains In The Jessica Colotl Story

(5/18/10) For the last four years this long-time American has been struggling to make all concerned actually read, understand and obey the 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (GSICA) which, as I have written ad nausem, is essentially a Georgia law that says we must obey federal immigration, employment and public benefits laws. So now I have to say it: thank you, Jessica Colotl.

This young lady has done more to illustrate the near complete disregard for immigration law in Georgia than any citizen protest rally or a thousand commentary columns.

The law is not written in some secret code or with ambiguous language. And, unless we are prepared to admit that there are groups of people for whom the rule of law does not apply, it must be equally enforced.

The issue is not whether or not illegal aliens are illegally getting in-state tuition rates in our public universities. They are. The issue is that illegal aliens are not supposed to even be in our post secondary education system. Period. At any tuition rate.

Post secondary education is a public benefit and is reserved for eligible applicants only.

Federal law, 8 USC 1611 – “Aliens who are not qualified aliens ineligible for Federal public benefits”- clearly defines these public benefits.

Because it seems that many are either clueless about the law or intentionally trying subvert it and the intent, let’s do something quite drastic here.

Let’s actually read definitions in the law:

(c) “Federal public benefit” defined

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), for purposes of this chapter the term “Federal public benefit” means—

(A) any grant, contract, loan, professional license, or commercial license provided by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States; and

(B) any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States.

This should not require a law degree to understand. The Board of Regents receives federal funding.

There is more: Another pesky federal law, 8 USC 1621, defines state and local public benefits using identical language.

At the bottom of 1621, the feds allow individual states to undo the prohibition on providing public benefits to illegals by passing into law specific language allowing illegal aliens to access those benefits. Georgia has no such law.

The Board of Regents and all of the universities in the system administer both federal and state and local public benefits. Post secondary education is anything beyond K-12 education.

The Board of Regents is in violation of the above federal laws because it is admitting illegal aliens to the Georgia University System. A fact that J. Burns Newsome, Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia acknowledged to me in a Thursday telephone conversation. He told me the Board of Regents “may address the matter in June…”

On instate tuition, federal law, 8 USC 1623, – “Limitation on eligibility for preferential treatment of aliens not lawfully present on basis of residence for higher education benefits” – says that if illegals are allowed into the university system and given instate tuition rates, then all U.S. citizens – instate residents or not – must be given the same rate.

Now for the state law that seems to be so challenging to so many: OCGA 50-36-1 (passed as part of SB 529 in 2006): “Public benefit means a federal benefit as defined in 8 U.S.C. Section 1611, a state or local benefit as defined in 8 U.S.C. Section 1621, a benefit identified as a public benefit by the Attorney General of Georgia, or a public benefit which shall include the following:…” The code then goes on to list additional benefits added in 2009.

State law uses the federal definition and cites the federal law to regulate public benefits. Georgia State law does not give the Board of Regents a free hand in making its own policy.

It says that governing body may set forth policy that complies with the above federal laws.

As a compromise in the contentious and internationally reported 2006 committee process, the Georgia law says that the Board of Regents is not required to use the system set up in the state law for verifying the lawful presence in the United States of any applicant for public benefits. It does not say they are forbidden from doing so.

Under the same state law, applicants for other public benefits are required to swear on an affidavit that they are eligible using either citizenship or lawful alien status. The law then requires each agency administering benefits to verify the information provided by non-citizens using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.

It is difficult to pick out the most galling and outrageous news quote from the many people who are either intentionally misrepresenting, or clueless, on the laws in place to protect taxpayer funded benefits from illegal aliens. But several from the Board of Regents Chancellor, Errol Davis, stick with me: “We follow the law,” said Davis last week referring to the BOR admissions policy.

No, they do not.

Chancellor Erroll Davis also told reporters at a recent meeting that he opposes universal verification. As reported by Morris News: “with 300,000 students and $25 per verification, the $1.5 million cost could equal the salary and benefits of 20 professors when the system’s budget is already tight.”

Complete and utter, offensive nonsense.

As described above, the law does not require running every applicant through the SAVE system. Only those who indicate they are not citizens, a small percentage of the new applicants for admission each semester. The cost of verifying immigration status for non-citizens using SAVE is not $25.00 and it is not $50.00.

It is 50 cents per query. Half-a-dollar.

Hardly approaching anywhere near the ridiculous figure Davis is hopefully offering up. All that needs to be done to reserve public university classroom seats for eligible students is to put the existing state affidavit and verification system in place in our state universities, and verify the eligibility of each non-citizen, once, when they initially apply for admission.

This is not rocket science folks. This long time American will happily set up the system in about an hour if the BOR needs some assistance.

Let’s stop calling this mess the “Jessica Colotl story” and refer to it for what it is: The Board of Regents Taxpayer Deception Scandal.

——————————————————————————–

D.A. King is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration, an expert on the Georgia immigration law and president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which is advocates for enforcement of American immigration laws. He lobbied in favor of the 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.

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HERE

Riverside Press-Enterprise

Illegal alien cheerleaders say crackdown on unlicensed drivers unfair

…Critics say most Inland checkpoints economically punish illegal immigrants whose cars often are impounded for 30 days — the maximum time allowed — and can ill afford the approximately $2,000 to retrieve the vehicle. Protesters point out that drunken drivers usually lose their car for only one day. They say racial profiling is at play where checkpoints are placed…

HERE

Conservatives for CIR Conference Call

May 12, 2010

Juan Hernandez: Conservatives for CIR, a loose coalition of groups, is pushing conservatives to engage in CIR conversations with the hope of creating a strategy for achieving it. We have many well-known evangelical leaders on the call today, but we will begin with a discussion by Sen. Charles Schumer.

Sen. Schumer: I have good and bad news. The bad news is that the immigration system is broken and causing pain to many in your congregations. The good news is that we know how to fix the system. I have been working with Sen. Graham for over a year and now have a plan. We know that recent public discourse reflects an increasing hostility toward immigrants. I think the fact that we now have support from Baptists, Catholics and others shows this is not just a Latino issue and that CIR is possible.

We are close to getting business and labor together on a compromise, but we need your help in getting bipartisan support for moving ahead this year. No one has criticized my proposal as amnesty but we are told that there will be no bipartisan discussion until the border is secured. That’s a talking point, not a solution. It is clear that nothing we do will be enough for those who oppose CIR. It’s also clear that there aren’t enough votes in the House or Senate Judiciary Committee to pass a piecemeal “secure the border first” bill. Only CIR can pass but we need the help of Republican Senators. We need them to sit in a room and talk. We can pass it this year if they want to help.

Question: Why are Republican Senators taking a “secure the border first” approach?

Sen. Schumer: The public wants the borders to be secured. We have already placed tremendous resources on the border. The only way to stop illegal immigration is to tell employers that they can no longer hire illegal immigrants. The biometric Social Security card I have proposed will stop 90 percent of illegal employment. But this is only part of the solution. We have to pass CIR. Even Dobbs and O’Reilly have made supportive statements about my plan. It’s a moderate bill. The public viewed the one in 2007 as not being tough enough on illegal immigration.

Hernandez: The other speakers on the call signed on to an ad that will appear in Roll Call on Thursday.

Rev. Leith Anderson (NAE President): We have surveyed our churches and found support for CIR. This led to signing on to a resolution with other evangelical groups last year. We think the ad will help show that framing the discussion as amnesty vs. deportation is a fake choice. We need to find a real solution that gives dignity to people living in the shadows.

Richard Land (Southern Baptist Conference): My organization has been calling for CIR for years. We passed a resolution in 2006 urging Congress to address the immigration crisis. The federal government has failed to address it. Yes, we want to secure the borders but this doesn’t mean we want closed borders. We need to control the borders. We can create a system that institutes fines and makes sure immigrants go to the back of the line. We have to remember that people broke the law to work.

The Arizona law is not a solution. It’s a symptom of the problem. I have been told there are attorneys waiting to use it to defend drug dealers with discrimination claims.

CIR is not amnesty. Anyone who says that needs a course in remedial English. Amnesty is what President Carter gave to draft dodgers. We can pass a law that secures the border first and uses metrics to trigger when the pathway will start.

Matt Staver (Liberty Council): We need a just solution for those living in the shadows. The solution is not amnesty. Nor is it deportation. We need an earned residency or earned citizenship. We need a program for legal guestworkers. I want to ask those labeling CIR as amnesty to stop their labeling.

Rev. Samuel Rodriquez (Hispanic Evangelicals): The fact that a majority of Americans support the Arizona law doesn’t surprise me. What surprises me is that they understand it will lead to racial profiling. We have something to decide. Is conservatism a movement just for white people? Does conservatism want to disenfranchise Hispanics like it did Black people? You need to understand the future of the conservative movement lies in the Latino population. The future of the conservative movement lies in just immigration reform.

Rev. Marcos Witt (Lakewood Church Hispanic Ministry): CIR is not a civil right issue. It’s a human rights issue, a moral rights issue. We have been active in trying to teach Hispanics in our congregation to talk to Senators and tell their stories. There are many who are trying to talk to conservatives and teach them why CIR is important. Grover Norquist is one conservative for spoke on behalf of CIR. He rejects the notion that CIR is not a conservative issue. I have been asking my Senators in Texas — Cornyn and Hutchison — to sit down at the table and discuss CIR. We need it passed this year. I also have been calling for a cessation of the raids that are tearing families apart. That is not our country. We are a country that embraces hospitality.

Pastor Kevin McBride (Raymond Baptist Church, Southern N.H.): Families all over the world are being broken apart by our immigration system. It goes against our pastoral teachings. I have been reaching out to Senator Judd Gregg and asking him to begin a dialogue.

Hernandez: Now we will take questions from the media.

Question (McAuliffe, NY Daily News): How do you view Sen. Schumer’s plan in light of the political atmosphere on the right which is focusing on enforcement first?

Anderson: Only solving one piece of the problem will unbalance the situation. We may not agree with everything in Sen. Schumer’s plan but it is a place to start.

Question (Gutman, Yahoo News): What are your specific plans for lobbying and who are you targeting?

Witt: I have approached Sen. Cornyn because he is from Texas like me and led CIR efforts in the past. He is a natural to come to the table because he was involved previously. Sen. Graham needs to come back to the table. I also have talked to Sen. Lugar.

Land: This is going to take leadership. We need to remember that President Bush made CIR a campaign issue in 2000. Then he got sidetracked by 9/11 and didn’t come back to it until his second term. A number of different Senators can be involved now. There are people on the other side saying Sen. Schumer’s plan is too tough. I know CIR is possible because the polls say Americans support a plan that secures the border and includes a pathway.

Staver: There is a broad consensus that we need to secure the borders and prevent employers from hiring the undocumented. This doesn’t mean we have to push them back across the border. When a pathway is labeled as amnesty, it clouds the issue. We now need to focus on this mislabeling so we can build consensus among the American people.

Question: Why are more evangelical groups getting involved now?

Land: Many have been involved. The media are just paying more attention now because the Arizona law passed. I am concerned that parts of the conservative coalition are mislabeling CIR as amnesty. As I said before, they need a course in remedial English.

Question: Are there some segments of the evangelical community that haven’t signed on?

Land: There are some organizations that take no position because the organizations don’t address immigration. That doesn’t mean they’re not interested. There are organizations taking a look at the issue now. They haven’t ruled it out. Some Baptist groups approached us and asked for more information.

Hernandez: That’s the end of the call. Please go back to your groups and have them ask Congress and President Obama to pass CIR this year.

Illegal hiring for airport construction?
By Steve Visser

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Friday, April 30, 2010

Jose Alvarez first asked about a bricklaying job with M&D Masonry at the Atlanta airport in March, and the foreman assured him that being an illegal immigrant wouldn’t be a problem.

“Do you have a picture ID?” said Bob Beaty, hiring foreman for the Americus-based masonry company working on the new $1.4 billion international terminal.

“But it’s not legal,” Alvarez told him.

“I know, I know, none of our guys are, but if you have a picture ID, you can get on here,” Beaty said. “Everybody turns in a Social Security number and we take taxes out for that number. I know none of those numbers are right.”

Alvarez, however, was not an illegal immigrant. He was working for a labor watchdog group, Jobs for Georgians, and he was secretly recording his conversation with the foreman to prove illegal hiring was taking place on the massive project.

When The Atlanta Journal-Constitution played the tape for Beaty this week, he said he wasn’t sure why he made such a comment to Alvarez, who had given him the name Miguel Hernandez.

When the AJC pointed out that Alvarez had returned with another “illegal worker” and Beaty had made similar comments, also taped, the genial 50-year-old foreman said he never had any intention of hiring them.

“I told them what they wanted to hear to get them out of my face to tell you the truth,” Beaty said.

Jobs for Georgians, an organization formed by construction unions, says hiring of illegal immigrants not only violates the law but enables other workplace violations, such as misclassifying employees as “independent contractors” or paying them off the books to avoid paying taxes and unemployment or workers compensation insurance.

Dave Weldon, co-owner of M&D Masonry, denied ever intentionally hiring illegal immigrants. He said his company verifies the Social Security numbers or immigration status of all applicants. He said if a number comes back as incorrect, the employee is given a chance to provide the correct one.

Both Weldon and Beaty said they’ve tightened their hiring processes on the airport job recently.

“We want IDs and Social Security numbers but especially in the last couple of months, we’ve become a lot more careful in what we’ll accept,” said Beaty, who added in a later interview this week, “I’ve had to send away three or four in the last couple of days because they didn’t have proper ID.”

John Kennedy, spokesman for the city of Atlanta’s Aviation Department, which runs Hartsfield-Jackson International, said it is up to the general contractor to ensure subcontractors follow hiring laws. The city only investigates complaints to the city’s Office of Contract Compliance, Kennedy said, adding there have been “no such complaints.”

Alvarez, who also works for the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers in Washington, said union officials met in March with one of the Mayor Kasim Reed’s top deputies, who said he would look into M&D’s hiring at Hartsfield-Jackson, Alvarez said.

On April 1, M&D sent a letter to the general contractor that said all employees provided documentation to show compliance with the Immigration Reform & Control Act of 1986. The letter does not say whether the company verified documentation and social security numbers, as required by both state and federal law.

Reed’s office issued a statement late Thursday. It said the mayor “takes workforce eligibility very seriously and is committed to ensuring fair access to jobs for all qualified workers.”

Alvarez said he targeted M&D because a number of its workers at the airport told him they were illegal immigrants and that some were paid off the books, which made him suspect they were being treated as “independent contractors.” That makes the employee responsible for all tax payments, with no workers comp or unemployment insurance protection.

Weldon said it had been “years” since his company treated brick layers as independent contractors.

John Doherty and Harry Galloway, presidents of Pyramid Masonry Contractors of Decatur and Galloway Masonry in Conyers, respectively, said the hiring of workers off the books or paying workers as “independent contractors” — whether they are illegal aliens or American citizens — is a huge problem in Georgia on both private and public-sector jobs. The practice undermines both the ability of honest contractors to compete for work and legal protections for workers, they said.

The contractors can pay such masons $12 or $13 an hour rather than $18 to $20 an hour when they list them as independent contractors because they don’t take out taxes, Doherty and Galloway said. That allows them to cut bids by 20 percent or more.

Doherty and Galloway said no one in state government is policing classification.

“Years ago they used to check but now they don’t check anything,” Galloway said. “The federal government puts all these rules on us but when federal and state money gets on a job and they do their own building it seems like they throw their own rule book away.”

Keith Thomas, business manager for the North Georgia Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella group for construction unions that formed Jobs for Georgians, blamed the state Labor Department for not auditing employers to ensure proper classification of workers.

Thomas said he took Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond evidence of misclassification on the new Cobb County courthouse project. He said wrongdoing continued until union officials informed the Cobb County Commission, which then notified the general contractor, who fired the offending subcontractor in February.

Thurmond’s spokesman, Sam Hall, said the department investigates credible complaints, but results are confidential. The agency also randomly audits 2 percent of Georgia employers each year, but only has authority over unemployment violations, Hall said.

Other boards and agencies have authority for tax and worker compensation violations, and the federal government has responsibility for immigration violations, he said. Hall said Thurmond has told the Legislature his agency would audit government construction projects to ensure that they were properly checking for illegal workers if the state funded it.

“We have not received one penny of funding and we have no authority to provide enforcement,” Hall said.

Alvarez, the Jobs for Georgia worker who taped the airport conversations, thinks the government should be doing more if it’s serious about enforcing immigration law and protecting legal workers’ jobs. He moved to the United States from Mexico more than 20 years ago, and he said he has watched employers push wages down and force more workers to lose their protections by hiring them as independent contractors. Employment of illegal immigrants exacerbates this practice, he said.

“I’ve been an American citizen for 10 years and before that I was a resident for 10,” Alvarez said. “I went through the process and worked hard to become a citizen and I was paying my taxes from day one.”

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