U.S. Border Control

Tancredo seeks to overturn court ruling against 'no match' enforcement

October 14, 2007

Republican Presidential candidate and Congressman Tom Tancredo announced that he will introduce legislation to overturn a recent federal court ruling preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from sending 'no-match' letters to potential employers of illegal aliens.

The letters would be sent to employers that have employees who have submitted fake or incorrect social security numbers. The agency was prepared to send 8.7 million letters prior to the court's preliminary injunction.

'Congress must take out the legs from underneath the court's misguided ruling with legislation,' said Tancredo. 'By giving DHS direct authority from Congress to send out the no-match letters, the court would be hard pressed to find another excuse to prevent DHS from enforcing our immigration laws.'

The new letters require employers to verify employee Social Security Numbers and submit new paperwork to DHS. If the employer still refuses to do anything about potentially illegal employees within 90 days, DHS' new rule says that he may be held criminally liable.

'After years of prodding, DHS finally is trying to take the single most effective step to curb illegal immigration---going after rogue employers,' said Tancredo. 'DHS is trying to give its no-match letters teeth and the American public shouldn’t have that effort short-circuited by some San Francisco judge.'

Tancredo says that the “illegal alien lobby – big business addicted to cheap workers and labor unions hungry for more members – went to court and won a preliminary injunction to stop the letters from being issued.”

According to Tancredo, Judge Charles Breyer's ruling is based solely on the allegation that DHS had exceeded its rulemaking authority that Congress had granted it. Tancredo's bill would circumvent the administrative law claims upon which Judge Breyer's ruling is based.