Court Opinion

ID: 9465108
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:36:05.006696+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:58.780703
License: Public Domain

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority opinion fully and fairly sets forth the unusual circumstances of this case but in part comes to a conclusion from which I respectfully dissent. I concur with the resolution of the jurisdictional issue, but take a contrary view on the issue of the alienage of the voting employees.
The Board would have us ignore for its purpose the federal immigration laws, and in particular 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(14). That section provides that aliens who seek to enter the United States for the purpose of performing skilled and unskilled labor shall be excluded unless the Secretary of Labor has determined and certified to the Secretary of State and to the Attorney General that there are not already sufficient workers here available for the work, and that “the employment of such aliens will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of the workers in the United States similarly employed.” That section creates a presumption that aliens should not be permitted to enter this country to perform labor “because of the likely harmful impact of their admission on American *362workers.” Pesikoff v. Secretary of Labor, 163 U.S.App.D.C. 197, 201, 501 F.2d 757, 761 (1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1038, 95 S.Ct. 525, 42 L.Ed.2d 315. The Board has been given no special dispensation to choose which related laws it may ignore. That does not place the enforcement of the immigration statutes upon the Board. I am not persuaded in this instance by the argument that since the Board’s interpretation is one of long standing it is therefore entitled to great weight. I view it as only a case of the Board having been wrong for a long time. That does not mean that something cannot or should not be done about it now for the compelling reasons apparent on the face of the immigration statutes. Old Ben Coal Corp. v. Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals, 523 F.2d 25, 36 (7th Cir. 1975). See also Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sloan, 436 U.S. 103, 98 S.Ct. 1702, 56 L.Ed.2d 148 (1978). The purposes of the Board and the immigration laws need not be in conflict as it seems to me they deserve to be blended in their application in seeking to achieve some common goals. Six of the seven eligible voters were illegal aliens and were deported shortly after the election. The six had no right to be here, no right to the jobs, and consequently no right to make determinations binding on the respondents’ business long after their deserved departure. That the employer may have had some knowledge of the illegal alien status of the workers I do not consider decisive. It is for Congress to impose liabilities, if desirable, on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. I would not presume that immigration officials will fail to fulfill their responsibilities in regard to illegal aliens as difficult as those duties may be at the present time. Nor would I speculate that to require the Board to give consideration to the immigration laws would result in any significant increase in the hiring of illegal aliens by employers for the purpose of defeating unionization. Ordinarily I would expect unions to support immigration enforcement so as to protect their own members.
I would also reach the same result by recognition of the “unusual circumstances” to rebut the fiction that the union continues to enjoy majority status. The majority was deported. Brooks v. N. L. R. B., 348 U.S. 96, 75 S.Ct. 176, 99 L.Ed. 125 (1954). Industrial peace, which that case finds to be the underlying purpose of the statute, cannot be much advanced by failing to take into account the unusual circumstance present here. There was no one left, at least temporarily, to carry on the business. A new election among the current employees could easily resolve this controversy in a more satisfactory manner.
I would deny enforcement.