SAN FRANCISCO (CMC):Thousands of illegal immigrants, including West Indians, have been granted a temporary reprieve when a United States federal judge prohibited the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out new rules to crack down on their employers.
The ruling in the Federal District Court in San Francisco has dealt a legal setback to a central part of the Bush administration's effort to increase enforcement of the immigration laws.
Judge Maxine M. Chesney also ordered the Social Security Administration to suspend a mailing, scheduled to begin Wednesday, of about 140,000 letters to employers advising them that some of their employees' Social Security information did not match the agency's records.
The U.S. government said illegal immigrants often apply for work with false Social Security numbers.
The mailings, known as 'no-match letters', were going to be accompanied by a two-page notice from the Homeland Security Department advising employers of the new rules, which give them 90 days to fire any employee who cannot show valid Social Security identification, or risk civil and even criminal charges for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
New rules
The Bush administration an-nounced the rules in August, which were expected to take effect on September 10. Judge Chesney has scheduled a hearing on the matter for October 1.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the national labour union, AFL-CIO, several California labour groups and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The suit argues that because of errors in the Social Security Administration's database, many Caribbean-born American citizens and other legal immigrant workers could be dismissed because of the new rules.
The suit also claims the rules could lead to widespread discrimination against these workers.
Last week, Caribbean and other immigrants were given another setback when the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that immigrants with green cards without expiration dates must immediately replace them or face penalties.
