By some estimates, there are as many as 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, toiling in farm fields, restaurant kitchens and construction sites. They’re in the country illegally, but the employers who hire them are also breaking the law. But the presence of illegal workers on a home renovation crew, and the contractor’s insistence on payment in cash don’t dissuade (1)______ clients. (1) ______
Plenty of employers even pay taxes and (2)______ on illegal workers. (2) ______
Many workers carry fake Social Security and green cards, and when they’re hired,
employers (3)______ those fake numbers with the federal government. (3) ______
There is a way the employer can tell if those numbers are fake. As Chris Bentley of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services explains, all it takes is a toll free phone call, which "allows them to. in a matter of seconds, take the information and (4)______ it against 450 million social security administration files, (4) ______
and an additional 65 million Department of Homeland Security files."
But few employers make the call.
The program is (5)______ (5) ______
Companies can’t be held responsible for failing to spot (6)______ documents. (6) ______
And although federal law (7)______ employing illegal workers, (7) ______
it is rarely enforced. Some agents oversee a huge district that includes most of Southern California and parts of Nevada. They deal with port security, airport security, money laundering, narcotics, financial fraud, and organized crime, as well as trade in counterfeit goods, state secrets, and human beings. (8)______ out illegal workers is just not a major concern, (8) ______
unless you’re talking about a work site with national security implications, like Los Angeles International Airport or a nuclear plant.
That situation (9)______ those (9) ______
who feel that American citizens are losing out to a black market system that lowers wages and cuts into the (10)______ base. (10)______