Should government agencies be required to ask an apllicant's legal immigration status?

Question

Schools, banks, welfare agenices, hospitals, clinics, police, housing agencies, telephone companies, and security guards protecting government buildings are often forbidden to ask a person his or her legal status in the United States. These agenices are prohibited from keeping or reporting statstics on client legal status. Should they be required to keep data and publish it on the web?

Answer 1

Yes, absolutely !

Answer 2

Well, "should" is just an opinion.

You never say state or federal when you say "government agencies"- and that makes all the difference.

The facts are that Constitutionally only federal agencies can inquire. Thus state agencies are in direct violation of well establish Constitutional and general case law when they attempt to regulate immigration. This is because the Immigration power vested in out government was given only federally and not for the states to determine, (Which is interesting since the rest is VERY much left to the states traditionally) Anyway- if you want to know more about it, read into the "Plenary Powers" given under the constitution. The clause besically vests everything that the founding fathers didnt mention into the hands of congress to make agencies to regulate. Thats how we ended up with federal immigration laws at all. So now the issue is that states want to regulate it themselves because they claim the federal government isnt doing enough- and then they run into the constitutional roadblock.

A state police officer can't do diddly squat about finding an undocumented worker- all they can do is report them to theh feds who actually have the jurisdictional authority to do something.

Anyway- makes you think twice about all these propositions to have state laws and self-policing by militia of our borders. It's waste of time because it will be defeated constitutionally. There are a million cases - Supreme Court included- that make it clear that states have no say in the matter. These people should be working on drafting a Constitutional amendment- not writing up laws that are guaranteed to be overruled. Well, either a Constitutional amendment or planning to succeed from the U.S. in another Civil War. Nothing else will float legally no matter what your opinion is on immigration.

I'm not saying what's right or wrong- just the "why".

Oh yeah and the posting it online bit- thats another constitutional issue- read the Bill of Rights. Some provisions are for citizens and some are from anyone that is in U.S. soil. I didn't do as well in Con Law as I did in Immigration law, so I dont know without looking at the text (and I'm too lazy to do that) but it is likely that posting personal info would violate the right to privacy assuming it is one of the rights covered for anyone on our soil and not just for citizens. Thus they may have this right constitutionally. Again- read the constitution. Its very interesting. Some clauses are protections for Citizens and some are for everyone that make it here.

Answer 3

In my opinion:

Any federally funded agency that provides any services that are not life-critical should be required to establish that the person is legally entitled to such a service. Asking an applicant's legal immigration status would be part of determining the person's entitlement or eligibility to a service.

Life-critical services include law enforcement, health and safety enforcement, and labor code enforcement (for minimum wage and safety violations).

As such, welfare, social security programs, and government grants for, say, education could not be offered to undocumented immigrants. However, the FBI could not withhold law enforcement for crimes committed by or against undocumented immigrants.

States and local governments should be held to a similar standard. Life-critical services must be offered to all persons, regardless of status, but non life-critical services would be up to the discretion of the state or local government unless such service is subsidized federally.

Answer 4

I think all State an Government an Private agencies should ask for legal status

Answer 5

If it requires us to change our current laws , then that is what we should do. Asking a person to prove they are a US citizen before they get hired seems pretty simple. I don't care if it is flipping burgers. If you are here illegally, you should not have the right of employment.

Answer 6

Well they do in the UK, I would assume they'd do the same in the US?