by Damozel | Despite an announced "clampdown" on corporations who hire illegal immigrants, the Bush administration seems to have been able to arrest only 100 or so of the people who did the hiring. )WaPo via Memeorandum) Though the feds have "clamped down" on companies that use illegal workers, only a "tiny fraction" end up with criminal charges filed against them. (WaPo)
Fewer than 100 owners, supervisors or hiring officials were arrested in fiscal 2007, compared with nearly 4,900 arrests that involved illegal workers, providers of fake documents and others, the figures show. Immigration experts say the data illustrate the Bush administration's limited success at delivering on its rhetoric about stopping illegal hiring by corporate employers.(WaPo)
Talk about "shamnesty."
According to The Washington Post, "6 million companies that employ more than 7 million unauthorized workers."(WaPo) According to "some analysts," only seventeen (17) firms out of this 6 million (6,000,000) were penalized this year for employing illegal workers.(WaPo) "The whole point of employer sanctions is to punish those who provide jobs -- the primary incentive -- to illegal workers. That goal continues to be largely unmet," said a former INS commissioner. (WaPo)
Obviously, the most efficient way to staunch the flow of illegals is to cut off the supply of jobs. The Bush Administration recognized that the availability of jobs is the "magnet" which draws them into the US. (WaPo) All experts agree that this must be part of any solution to the problem. On the other hand, many business owners continue to need the cheap labor.
ICE reported that the 92 criminal arrests made in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 included 59 owners and 33 corporate officials, human resources workers, crew chiefs and others in the "supervisory chain."
Of the remaining 771 criminal arrests, nearly 90 percent involved workers and other people accused of identity theft or document fraud, money laundering, providing transportation or documentation to illegal workers, or other crimes (WaPo).
Democrats have pointed out that failure of Republicans to go after corporate owners that employ illegal immigrants with the same enthusiasm with which they go after the workers might make their ferocity on the issue a tad less credible. (WaPo) Though to be sure, Bush Administration officials have talked the talk: For example, Michael Chertoff, Director of the Department of Homeland Security, said in November: "The days of treating employers who violate these laws by giving them the equivalent of a corporate parking ticket -- those days are gone. It's now felonies, jail time, fines and forfeitures." (WaPo) He also said that rigorous enforcement will make "a down payment of credibility" with the American people.
Right. If we're going to have a zero tolerance policy, then we need to apply it to the people who are luring the illegal immigrants across the border. (WaPo) Those businesses are surely wondering a bit where the work force is going to come from, and how they are going to go on making ends meet if they can't get the cheap labor they've been exploiting, but rules is rules, right?
Then where's our crackdown? Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee who used to be a prosecutor. According to the Washington Post, she said, "I know what it takes to get a criminal case...Why is it that hundreds of bar owners can be sanctioned in Missouri every year for letting somebody with a fake ID have a beer, but we can't manage to sanction hundreds of employers for letting people use fake identities to obtain a job?"(WaPo)
Good question.
The Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency responded to the Senator by saying that it takes time to build a criminal case."(WaPo) A spokesman said in an interview that the agency is focusing on ""egregious" violators whose business models rely on hiring illegal immigrants, especially those whose practices may promote fraud or border breaches.""(WaPo) Still: 17 out of 6,000,000?
Senator McCaskill isn't buying either argument. She seems to think that the agency is trying to avoid punishing businesses that need the cheap labor. (WaPo)
The Center for Immigration Studies, which opposed Bush's proposal to allow some immgrants to obtain legal status says that the government must "change businesses' expectations, in order to change their behavior."
"Past enforcement actions have been regarded by business correctly as a passing thing. . . . They need to believe it's not just going to go away in a couple of months," Krikorian said. Illegal immigrant labor laws should be enforced as rigorously as child labor laws, he said. (WaPo)
Memeorandum has discussion here. See ImmigrationProfBlog.
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