It’s a Leap Backward

The job center to be initiated by the community of Brea is a step forward, but when its mayor asserts that the center will also service illegal aliens who, under federal laws, are not entitled to work in the United States, it is a leap backward.

The mayor knows full well that it is national policy, a part of our federal laws, that only aliens who are lawful permanent residents, or otherwise authorized to work, may legally be employed in the United States; but he says “that’s up to the employer to ascertain” (March 4).

He will use taxpayers’ money to bring the worker and employer together, closing his eyes to the fact that the job center may be providing employers for aliens not entitled to work, and thereby subjecting the employer to possible fines and even criminal sanctions. The Brea community should consider whether the job center is serving a constructive and civic purpose if it provides jobs for aliens not entitled to work under federal laws and who may be subject to deportation and also unwittingly exposes the employer to punitive action. If this should happen, has the job center performed a public service? Is this an “enlightened approach,” as the mayor chooses to describe it?

JOSEPH SURECK

Laguna Niguel