This Ought to be Interesting

Tucked away on the ninth page of today's paper, a re-print from the Orange County Register reminds us that a new immigration rule takes effect on Tuesday. The new rule says that any employer who gets a government contract or receives stimulus funds must run their employees through E-Verify to see if they are legally allowed to work in the U.S.

While I am quite sure people will figure out a way to scam the system -- they always do -- this could give us some idea of just how pervasive illegal immigration is. Of course there are other issues too, like whether the government database against which the names will be checked is accurate and up to date. Still, this should be an interesting test of what it would be like if American employers really couldn't hire undocumented workers.

By the way, the last time we tried to do something about illegal immigrants in the work force the Republicans lobbied against it, and won. Yes, it was in 1986, during Ronald Reagan's administration, that businesses lobbied against immigration reform, because they did not want to lose their cheap (illegal) labor. Unlikely allies including the hotel industry (led by Marriott), meatpacking plants, construction firms and farmers convinced Reagan to dump reform and grant amnesty to over 2 million illegal alliens. So the next time you hear Democrats being blamed for immigration woes, remember that.