WASHINGTON – Last Thursday, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to stop the Bush administration from starting its proposed crackdown on U.S. companies that hire illegal immigrants, The Washington Post reports. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco felt that the plan has a potentially “staggering” impact on law-abiding workers and businesses.

The White House proposal would pressure employers to fire up to 8.7 million workers who possessed suspect Social Security numbers. The judge found that the plaintiffs in the case, a coalition that included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union, presented serious questions about the plan to send Social Security “no-match” letters to 140,000 U.S. employers, and therefore blocked the plan from proceeding.

“There can be no doubt that the effects of the rule’s implementation will be severe, [which would result in…] irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers,” Breyer wrote.

The government plan, which announced the plan on August 10, would warn employers of the need to resolve questions about their workers’ identities or fire those employees within 90 days. Failure to do so would result in “stiff penalties,” which could include fines and possible criminal prosecutions.

However, the plaintiffs’ argument that the Social Security database contained so many errors that using it to fire workers would unfairly discriminate against tens of thousands of legal workers persuaded the judge to halt the letters. “The government’s proposal to disseminate no-match letters affecting more than 8 million workers will, under the mandated time line, result in the termination of employment to lawfully employed workers,” the judge wrote.

Randel K. Johnson, a vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, told the newspaper that the ruling showed that federal agencies should not ignore the Regulatory Flexibility Act, a 1980 law that is meant to protect small-business owners from burdensome government red tape.

“It says the government cannot do anything it wants simply in the name of enforcement. They’ve got to be careful about building their record and complying with the law,” Johnson said.