Jorge S., an East Bay grocery store clerk, worries about his family's future if the Bush administration follows through with its declaration this month to crack down on employers who fail to verify the legal status of their workers."Everyone at the store is worried about it. We're all in the same boat," said Jorge, 53, who invented a Social Security number to get hired eight years ago and would not give his last name for fear of losing his job. "I'd be in a very difficult situation if I lose my job."
Jorge is among hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Northern California who are working without proper authorization. Immigration experts say that American jobs are the biggest magnet for illegal immigrants and that the new policy of enforcing a 20-year-old law barring employers from hiring undocumented workers is an important step in reducing illegal border crossings.
"It's the only thing that could have a deterrent effect," said Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego. "The overwhelming incentive for coming here is the prospect of being employed in jobs that invariably pay far more than low-skilled jobs pay in Mexico or other sending countries."
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