Immigration Checks in Lancaster CA?

Lancaster has implemented a rule that most government entities already have; checking immigration status on new hires.

Its all fine and good, makes governments look like their are more "enforcement focused" -- yet what happens to the people who can't find jobs, who live here, have American citizen families and can no longer support them?

It is true that the U.S. has a very high unemployment rate at this time. But the jobs that undocumented immigrants take are those that almost all U.S. citizens don't want - the nannies, the yard workers, construction workers who do heavy physical labor, dishwashers...

Click here for a link to a NYT essay on a undocumented worker who has disappeared in Houston. She lost her job and could not find another...too bad more of us don't think this is a tragedy.

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Lancaster requires businesses to do immigration checks on new hires

by Ann M. Simmons, LA Times

December 29, 2009 | 6:52 am

Businesses operating in the city of Lancaster will be required to ensure that all their new hires are eligible to work in the United States by using an Internet-based federal program to check the immigration and employment eligibility of potential workers.

The free online program, called E-Verify, allows participating employers to use federal databases to compare information provided by job seekers with millions of records kept by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are working to ensure that all available jobs in our city go to hard-working, law-abiding citizens,” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said in a statement, noting that tough economic times had led to 17% unemployment in the Antelope Valley.

By adopting the E-Verify program, businesses in Lancaster will join a growing number of companies nationwide that use federal data to confirm the eligibility of potential new hires. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 175,000 employers are enrolled in the program, which is compulsory for companies that contract with the federal government...link to complete article