Businesses, labor unions try to block crackdown on illegal workers

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, labor unions, the ACLU and others are warning that when the federal government launches an illegal immigration crackdown next week, major disruptions will follow. The effort will begin with letters notifying employers that some of their workers have suspect Social Security numbers.

The government plans to send the letters to an estimated 140,000 employers over a two-month period, covering about 8.9 million Social Security numbers and names that do not match government records. A sizable portion of the no-matches are the result of illegal immigrants using fake identification and wrong Social Security numbers to get jobs.

'Employers will be overwhelmed with paperwork as the government seeks to make employers responsible for the decades-old administrative problems,' said the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition in a campaign seeking a six-month delay.

The organizations raced to court seeking a temporary restraining order blocking the Social Security Administration from issuing the letters that could spell legal and financial trouble for employers who knowingly keep illegal immigrants on the payroll.