Employer Sanctions Trouble Task Force

An Administration task force is “deeply concerned about the discriminatory effect of employer sanctions” intended to discourage illegal immigration but stopped short of calling for repeal of the measures, according to a draft of the group’s report obtained by The Times.

Instead, the task force will call for increased education and enforcement of anti-discrimination provisions in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which mandated penalties against employers who hire illegal aliens.

The draft by the task force suggests also that government officials streamline the number of documents used to verify legal workers and proposes additional federal studies. Opponents complain that some employers have avoided violating the law by not hiring anyone who looks or sounds foreign.

Civil rights and minority rights organizations had hoped that the task force might join them in calling for repeal of sanctions. But they said Monday that they were encouraged by a section of the draft which they interpreted as a green light for Congress to act.

The task force headed by John R. Dunne, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, sought to “identify remedial measures to deal with discrimination,” the draft said. It added that the issue of repeal was not addressed because, “The task force believes that the question of repeal of sanctions is properly before Congress.”

Forces opposed to sanctions hailed the task force’s executive summary, which concluded that “evidence shows that many employers are discriminating by adopting exclusionary hiring practices. These practices are illegal and must be stopped.”

When informed of the contents of the draft report last night, executives of the National Council of La Raza in Washington reacted with apparent satisfaction. “The task force’s report erases any shadow of doubt that employer sanctions have caused widespread discrimination,” said Cecelia Munoz, senior policy analyst with La Raza.

“The report leaves the door wide open for Congress to repeal employer sanctions,” she added.

Only one member of the task force dissented by calling for repeal of sanctions. Arthur A. Fletcher, chairman of the Civil Rights Commission, agreed with his colleagues that their suggested remedial actions would reduce discrimination. But, in an appendix to the report, he called for repeal.

The task force called also for the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices to establish at least three regional offices “to conduct intake, investigative, educational and outreach activities.”

The draft said also that responsibility for sanctions-related discrimination complaints should be transfered from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Department of Labor.