After court ruling, Homeland Security promises changes to immigration policy

As part of a promised crackdown on illegal immigration, the Department of Homeland Security proposed to punish employers of illegal immigrants. The department planned to send letters threatening legal action for employers if they did not fire employees whose Social Security numbers could not be verified. In October, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled against these "no-match" letters, and last week, Homeland Security filed a motion asking for time to revise the rule, reports The New York Times.

Breyer's ruling had blocked the sending of the first batch of letters and asked that the administration perform a survey of small businesses to determine the impact of the rule, reports Julia Preston. "In a four-page motion filed Friday, the government, without acknowledging any flaws in the original rule, asked Judge Breyer to suspend the case so the Department of Homeland Security could rewrite the rule and conduct the small-business survey, which it expects to do by March 24," Preston writes. "The government said that it wanted to 'prevent the waste of judicial resources' and that it was confident the amended rule would 'fully address the court’s concerns.'"