Illinois sued for thwarting immigration enforcement

NY Times:

The Bush administration sued the State of Illinois yesterday, hoping to block a new state law that bars employers from using a federal database to verify that immigrant job applicants are in the United States legally and are authorized to work.

With the suit, officials said, the administration is going on the offensive in the courts in response to cases intended to stall a crackdown on illegal immigration that the federal authorities announced last month.

“We will vigorously contest any effort to impede our enforcement measures,” the Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

The suit, brought by Mr. Chertoff’s department, seeks to stop Illinois from putting into effect a law that forbids employers from enrolling in the federal worker verification database program.

The program, formerly known as Basic Pilot, was renamed E-Verify last month.

Under the Illinois statute, the ban would remain until Washington certifies that the databases used to verify workers’ eligibility are 99 percent accurate.

Supporters of the law say the Social Security Administration and Homeland Security Department databases used to confirm eligibility are riddled with errors and could result in the denial of jobs to legal workers, including citizens.

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The Illinois law is an outrage against the rule of law. If someone is on the database that should not be there they simply have to show proper documents to be removed. That is not a hardship. People have to show similar documents to get a passport. What the state was doing is tantamount to making itself a sanctuary for those in the country illegally. Such a law is a disgrace.