Odd sentence in the New York Times

[Marc Sacks]

In an article in today's Times, "After Aiding Bill on Immigration,
Employers Balk," I found this oddity:

"Besides revamping visa preferences, the bill would also offer legal
status to most of the nation’s 12 million illegal immigrants and would
increase the penalties for businesses that employ them."

Why would the government want to increase the penalties, or impose any at
all, on businesses that employ immigrants with legal status? This probably
means penalties for employing illegal immigrants *after* the point at
which many have become legal, but it's not at all clear from the sentence.

Marc Sacks
msacks at theworld.com

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