Today the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law that imposes harsh penalties on businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Thank you, Supreme Court; or at least thank you to the five members who voted in favor of upholding this law. For the three that voted against it, maybe you three should go to any Home Depot in the state of Arizona, look for the men hanging out under the Home Depot sign, and give them your social security numbers!
In order to find work, illegal immigrants have used MY social security number repeatedly. To make matters worse, they have also used my children’s social security numbers. When my son was 10 years old, he was working as a bricklayer in Delaware; this would have been one helluva commute seeing as he was living in Arizona. When my daughter was 10 (they are twins), she was working as a waitress in Sedona, Arizona. This is not as much of a commute, but I can assure you, she was not sneaking out at night and hitchhiking up north.
I do believe that a state employee stole our social security numbers when I applied for WIC (Women, Infants and Children) benefits. That is the only place I can think of that had access to all three of our social security numbers. I have heard that it is very uncommon for every member of a household to have their numbers stolen, unless of course it is someone close to you that has access to that information. At the time our numbers were stolen, there was no one that close.
I first found out that my number was being used when I applied for unemployment benefits several years ago. The state employee that was processing my claim was asking me to confirm the places I had worked over the years. When he asked if I had worked as a bricklayer (which seems to be a popular career path with illegal immigrants), I laughed and said, "No, I'm a girly girl, I don't do manual labor." He then asked if I had ever worked as a construction worker, carpet layer, or as a cook at Hungry Howie’s (no, no, and no).
I wrote down every company were my social security number showed up and called them. Some I got answering machines and left messages; they never called back. Some I got a “this number is no longer in service” recording. Some just hung up on me when I began to explain my situation.
When I called Hungry Howie’s (I had no idea what Hungry Howie’s was), someone answered the phone! It turns out; Hungry Howie's is a pizza/sandwich shop. I asked to speak to the manager, and when he got on the phone, I told him about my dilemma. I asked him how Hungry Howie’s verifies someone's eligibility to work in the United States. He told me they required two forms of identification. I then asked, “what kind of identification is acceptable?” He replied, “any.” Any? Every time I have ever been hired they have always wanted a picture I.D. (Drivers license, passport, state I.D., military I.D., work visa, or green card) and my original social security card. He then asked me if I was a reporter; when I said no, I am a victim. He ended our phone call.
I really hope Hungry Howie’s loses their business license.
For those of you that think this law is unfair, take your hiney to any Home Depot in any state that borders Mexico, and hand your social security card to one of the guys hanging out under the sign.
This is scary, and businesses turn a blind eye to it all the time.
ReplyDeleteIllegal immigration is certainly a problem in the United States.... it’s certainly a more obvious problem in states like California and Arizona. I'll first have to admit that I am not very familiar with this latest Arizona law that imposes harsh penalties on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.... I again without having read the law or implications would think its perfectly within the rights of states to impose such penalties and its hard to imagine reasonable thinking people ( people other than Tea Party members, Palin supporters, Glenn Beck watchers, people that stopped making their mortgage payments because they believed May 21 2011 would be the end of the world, etc...) could argue the point. The fact that unreasonable thinking people I am sure agree with the ruling causes some degree of perplexity amongst reasonable thinking people like me and others, is just cause to remind myself and the very limited number of people within my tiny tiny circle of influence this...... NEVER ever ever ever is it a good idea to dismiss our constitution or Bill Of Rights and basic freedoms in an attempt to correct problems or concerns..... Example "The Patriot Act".
ReplyDeleteTruth is that sometimes there simply are not any easy answers.... I think we have to have penalties for hiring illegal immigrants but I think the much bigger problem is we need real immigration reform and we need it ASAP and neither party wants to address it for a number of political reasons.
Under the circumstances, you'd think Hungry Howie’s would change their name to "Hungry Julio" or something.