Instead of mounting a legal defense of a controversial rule on employment-eligibility verification, the Bush administration plans to revise the regulation, the New York Times reports.
In August, the federal government published a rule covering so-called "no match" letters. The Social Security Administration (SSA) sends out a "no match" letter when the combination of name and social security number submitted for an employee fails to match that agency's records.
The rule established safe-harbor procedures for employers who receive a no-match letter. The rule outlines "reasonable steps" an employer should take once it receives a no-match letter. If employers fail to follow those steps and an employee is found to be unauthorized to work in the United States , employers could open themselves to criminal and civil liability.
The rule was scheduled to go into effect September 14, but a group of unions and business groups were successful in getting a federal judge to block the rule.
In October, Judge Charles R. Breyer of the Northern District of California delayed the rule indefinitely, saying the government failed to follow procedures set forth in the Administrative Procedures Act as well as other Congressional dictates.
In a letter to federal court late last week, the Bush administration said it would drop its legal defense of the rule and revise it instead, the newspaper reports.
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