Mismatch letter

You have hired a worker to harvest your crop. After submitting his Social Security number to the agency, you get a mismatch letter. The number doesn't match with agency records.
You tell the employee about the mismatch and instruct him to contact to the agency to resolve the issue. A period of time goes by - perhaps a whole year. Then you get a second mismatch letter.
As an agricultural employer, what do you do next? Craig Regelbrugge, senior director of government relations for The American Nursery and Landscape Association, said that question is becoming more and more significant.
The legally conservative approach would be to give the worker 60 days to straighten out the problem or face termination. But with the majority of the agricultural workforce comprised of illegal workers - perhaps seven in ten - where will replacement workers be found?
"There is lot of potential exposure, even when you are talking about employers in agriculture who have been meeting the letter of the law." he said.
Stepped up prosecution of employers and managers who knowingly hire illegals- see here a recent WSJ story about the ICE investigation of IFCO - puts agricultural employers in a precarious position.

More than ever, Congress needs to pass immigration reform that accounts for agriculture's need for legal workers and doesn't ask employers to be the enforcers.