Businesses Should Verify Legality of Employees

The Loews Hotel in Santa Monica should be thanked, not fined, for doing the job the government has charged employers with: verifying that their employees are legally able to work in this country [“Loews Hotels to Pay $12,000 Fine to Settle Union Complaint,” March 4].

The complainant’s assertion that the expiration of a U.S. citizen’s passport would not have triggered any kind of a check on their employment eligibility is absolutely right. A U.S. citizen is eligible to work here by virtue of their citizenship, whether it be by birth or naturalization. Passports permit international travel. They have nothing to do with employment.

A noncitizen legal resident, however, is living and working here by permission of our government, and when that permission expires, so do those rights. The expiration of a driver’s license doesn’t mean one has lost their ability to drive, but they have lost the legal right to do so. It’s the same with a green card.

Businesses seem now to have two choices: comply with the law by verifying the legality of their employees and possibly be fined for it, or don’t verify and risk being caught and cited for hiring those who shouldn’t be working here.

Tom Celli

Burbank