Immigration law strikes at rights of all workers
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INS raids target Palestinians From IBANON VV: EL SALVADOK mOre Wali SAN FRANCISCO-The age of Big Brother may truly be upon us. But it is not coming from some alleged Soviet takeover of the United States, as the Cold War ABC mini-series, "Amerika," would have us believe.
Last November, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, better known as the Simpson-Rodino Law. This new law extends an icy finger into the life of every single worker in the United States.
The immigration law's stated purpose is to "regain control of the U.S. borders" by making it impossible for undocumented immigrants to live and work in this country. The law is aimed at keeping out millions of workers and their families who are forced to come here to escape poverty and/or political repression.
But the new law is also part of a clamping down on the civil liberties and democratic rights of all working people.
The rules being proposed to administer the new immigration law give stark reality to what Congress and the Reagan adminis -tration mean by "immigration reform."
The proposed rules require that every job applicant, citizen or not, produce docu -ments establishing identity and work authorization. The new law makes it "unlawful for an employer to knowingly hire an alien who is not authorized to work," according to a summary of the law by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). The law provides stiff sanctions against employers who hire or continue employing "unauthor -ized aliens."
Employers must verify the job appli -cant's documents within 24 hours and then keep a record for an extended period of time. Anyone who knowingly uses fraudulent immigration or identification documents for purposes of complying with the verification requirements is subject to a fine and/or imprisonment for up to two years.
Certainly, faced with criminal penalties and a 24-hour deadline, few employers would bother to hire anyone about whom they had the slightest doubt. According to eca GUNS: Socialist Action/Kathleen Onan