By some estimates, there are as many as 12 million illegal
immigrants in the United States, wiling 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
falling 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) _____