Obama hunts the employers

Nice move, Mr. President. I don’t often say that, but going after American Apparel was a stroke of genius.

The owner is Canadian. One of those immigrants who employs lots of people. And he’s got a mouth on him. He was a ringleader during the LA May Day parades for amnesty.

He’s pro-gay.

His ads push the envelope of decency.

And he says he complies with the law when hiring workers. (I suppose that means he fills out the I-9 forms and ignores “No Match” letters.)

Well, here are the results. ICE investigated American Apparel. Of the 4,500 employees…1,600 presented bogus ID to get hired. Oh, and another 200 IDs could not be validated.

Let’s see, that means his illegal workforce is in the 35 to 40 percent range.

All in favor of revoking his “Made in America” seal please raise your hand.

Now what, Mr. Obama? The company says they didn’t know anyone was illegal so you can’t prosecute them unless you can prove they deliberately hired illegals.

Will you deport the workers? That would make sense, but that isn’t what you did in Bellingham, Washington.

So, we are back to 1994. We need E-Verify. We need to make it mandatory. We need to warn employers with “No Match” letters and demand that they clear up the discrepancies.

Otherwise, the employer is obeying the law. Like the owner of American Apparel told NPR, "Everyone who works here, we check their documents — but we don't over-document or under-document. We follow the law in a very precise manner."

You can’t fine a guy for using the loopholes you put in the law.

If this was meant to be a show of enforcement, it fails the test. If it is a “shot across the bow” I’d suggest you tighten up the regulations if you want it to be effective.