Jim Kouri

With the federal government's failure to curtail the onslaught of illegal aliens into the United States, coupled with the inaction of lawmakers in Washington, DC to pass real immigration reform, some Americans are looking at legal alternatives to thwart illegal immigration and those who facilitate it.
In addition, more and more Americans are recognizing that state governments aren't doing anything to curb illegal immigration, and, in fact, several states even aid illegal aliens or provide incentives. Also employers who hire illegal aliens create the driving force for illegals to enter the US in order to secure gainful employment.

For years, employers in California have known that they could hire illegal aliens without having to worry very much about as far as being prosecuted for breaking the law. Soon, however, they may have something serious to worry about: their competitors taking legal action against them.

According to legal experts, a Californian civil law includes a provision for a company that knowingly employs illegal aliens to be sued by competitors who have suffered economic damages as a result of such an illegal practice. When a construction company, for instance, uses minimum wage workers who are illegal aliens to underbid competitors in order to secure work contracts, those companies who hire Americans and legal "green card" immigrants and pay fair wages will be able to sue the illegal aliens' employer in a court of law.

A Santa Monica temp agency alleges a grower and two firms violated a state law on unfair
competition by using undocumented workers.

By Molly Selvin

Opponents of illegal immigration are using a new legal tactic: Suing businesses that allegedly hire illegal workers, contending they gain an unfair competitive advantage.

In a complaint filed Monday, a Santa Monica-based temporary employment agency that supplies legal farmworkers sued a Central Valley blueberry grower and two other companies. The agency contends that the grower hired illegal workers, violating a contract to use the agency's employees.

The California lawsuit is believed to be the first based on the state's unfair-competition law, legal experts said. Although the case may be difficult to win, they said, it seeks to highlight widespread criticisms that the federal government is ineffective in enforcing laws barring the hiring of illegal workers.

BY JIM FABER, The Island Packet

 When Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found problems last month with the citizenship status of 43 employees of the Hilton Head Island Bi-Lo store, questions were raised as to why the store didn't check out their employees more thoroughly.

But, according to experts, just about any business could find itself in the same position.

Properly completing citizen and identity verification forms, called the I-9 form, is all a business can, and probably should, do in attempting to thwart fraud from those seeking employment illegally, according to a local immigration law expert and the government's guidelines.

"Employers are not required to be immigration experts," said Melissa Azallion, a labor and immigration lawyer with the Hilton Head office of the law firm Nexsen Pruet. "They are required to use a reasonable good-faith effort to examine those documents."