Rather than waiting for the U.S. Congress or the California Legislature to address the illegal immigration problem, an Orange County attorney is planning to file several lawsuits this summer across the state against employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. The plan is to invoke a 17200 cause of action or an Unfair Competition/Business Practice under California law.

The idea is to eliminate the economic incentives employers have for hiring illegal immigrants, a move that would be unnecessary if only current immigration laws were enforced.

The argument is based on the premise that employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and then under-report payroll for the purposes of California workers' comp premiums, pay few or no benefits, and less than minimum wage are unfairly undercutting their competitors.

"It's not just employers who break the law. It's employers who knowingly break the law," says attorney David Klehm, founder of Illegal Employers.org, adding that some employers who get back "no match" letters from the Social Security Administration encourage those employees to just get another social security number.

A news release put out by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, says the lawsuits will seek damages, restitution, and market protections on behalf of law-abiding businesses. This is the first time a state law as been used to fight the effects of illegal immigration. Klehm says honest employers have lost billions of dollars to employers who hire illegal aliens.

It's estimated that approximately 2.2 million illegal aliens reside in California. In October, the Second District Court of Appeals ruled in Farmer Brothers Coffee v. WCAB that illegal immigrants who obtain their employment fraudulently are still entitled to workers' comp benefits.