White House Blog Plan Panned

The White House's new blog response team was in action over at Free Republic. The issue in question was "penalty mitigation" for employers who really, honestly, didn't mean to hire illegal aliens.

"I would like to point out that the Secretary is authorized to reduce or mitigate penalities against employers who in good faith are trying to comply with the law. Certainly, we understand that not all employers knowingly hire illegal immigrants; this will remain the case, especially before the bill’s new secure documentation requirements are fully phased in. We do not seek to wrongly penalize honest employers who unknowingly hire illegal immigrants, therefore we reserve the right to reduce or mitigate their penalties if the employer can show good faith compliance in following the law," said Nicholas Thompson with the Office of Strategic Initiatives.

Responses tended to the negative.
"This really irritates me. It costs less than .50 cents to verify a Social Security Number provided by any job applicant. It takes less than thirty seconds to do so via any of over 700 employment screening companies nationally. This ‘we can’t hold employers responsible for hiring them unknowningly’ stuff is pure unadulterated horse hockey. My company is one of those with the capability to do this, btw. I know what I’m talking about here. And I strongly suspect the spokesperson’s for the administration know it as well." -- Badeye
"What a joke and what a loop hole. This is a recipe for non-enforcement. If applied to the rest of the legal system we'd could employ the standard, 'Gee officer I didn't know I was speeding.' and 'I didn't know she was only 16.'" -- Maynerd

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