Crackdown on Illegal Workers Grows

[pampango]

Source: Wall Street Journal

The Obama administration plans to intensify a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants with the establishment of an audit office designed to bolster verification of company hiring records. In an interview, John Morton, chief of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said the Employment Compliance Inspection Center would "address a need to conduct audits even of the largest employers with a very large number of employees." The office would be announced Thursday, he said.

Mr. Morton said that the center would be staffed with specialists who will pore over the I-9 employee files collected from companies targeted for audits. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010, ICE conducted audits of more than 2,740 companies, nearly twice as many as the previous year. The agency levied a record $7 million in civil fines on businesses that employed illegal workers.

Enforcement activity during the Bush administration focused on high-profile raids in which thousands of illegal immigrants were arrested and placed in deportation proceedings. Relatively few companies and their executives were prosecuted. In contrast, the Obama administration has made employers the center of its immigration policy with "silent raids." Critics say the policy has penalized small employers while failing to target larger employers. Mr. Morton said the new center would have the "express purpose" of providing support to regional immigration offices conducting large audits. "We wouldn't be limited by the size of a company," he said.

Mr. Morton said ICE was also seeking to expand a program enabling businesses to work with the federal government to ensure they are employing people authorized to work in the U.S. Called IMAGE, or ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers, the voluntary program includes training and assessments to help a company guard against hiring illegal employees. Mr. Morton will also announce Thursday that Tyson Foods, Inc., which employs 100,000 people and has fought immigration troubles in the past, has joined the program, agreeing to an audit of "a certain portion of existing records." The poultry processor, which says it has already taken steps to maintain a legal workforce, also agreed to establish an internal auditing process, Mr. Morton said.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703951704576092381196958362.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLETopStories

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Is this the Administration's idea of "creating jobs" by removing "illegals"?

[AlphaCentauri]

10. Throwing them to the lions will keep the circus going

[daggahead]

2. Why no crack down on illegal hirers? n/t

[polmaven]

3. Ummm - huh?

You see a difference between illegal employers and illegal "hirers"? Don't employers do the hiring? :shrug:

[ingac70]

4. First sentence....

"The Obama administration plans to intensify a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants with the establishment of an audit office designed to bolster verification of company hiring records."

[notadmblnd]

5. Might want to read this again

Relatively few companies and their executives were prosecuted. In contrast, the Obama administration has made employers the center of its immigration policy with "silent raids." Critics say the policy has penalized small employers while failing to target larger employers. Mr. Morton said the new center would have the "express purpose" of providing support to regional immigration offices conducting large audits. "We wouldn't be limited by the size of a company," he said.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. That is clearly what is happening

[daggahead]

8. oops

I spoke too soon.

Yes, going after those that hire undocumented workers is far more sensible and effective.

My eyes played tricks on me!

:dunce:

[madokie]

13. Were you hung over when you posted this bit of wisdom?

cause that is exactly what they are doing going after the 'hirers' as you call them. sheeeez

[forty6]

7. $ 7 million in fines... should be $700 milllion

It's time that this immigration problem with employers was paid for by the fines alone.

[The Croquist]

9. I was thinking that too but

progress is clearly being made.

2008 0.7 million
2009 1.0 million
2010 7.0 million

Hopefully 2011 will be significantly higher.
I've got no sympathy for either the workers or the employers but it's good to see them attacking both ends of the problem.

I also don't buy the they can't attract American workers even during an economic downturn crap. Try raising salaries. It's amazing how well that works.

[AlphaCentauri]

11. Over a million immigrants land U.S. jobs in 2008-10

Over the past two years, as U.S. unemployment remained near double-digit levels and the economy shed jobs in the wake of the financial crisis, over a million foreign-born arrivals to America found work

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70J37P20110120

[The Croquist]

12. Your article

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70J37P20110120


Often young and unskilled or semi-skilled, immigrants have taken jobs Americans could do in areas like construction, willing to work for less wages. Others land jobs that unemployed Americans turn up their noses at or lack the skills to do.

There are allot of unemployed US citizens who ARE construction workers.

One of the advantages of hiring, particularly young, undocumented immigrants, is the fact that employers do not have to pay health benefits or basic payroll taxes,

I'd rather have 1,100,000 US citizens working then 1,100,000 non US citizens regardless of their status.

[pampango]

14. And each year 4-5 million Americans enter the workforce (12-15 million 2008-2010)

And yet these 12 million don't devastate the economy any more than the 1 million immigrants. Why? Because each new person entering the workforce (no matter where they come from) not only provides labor (and represents competition for existing workers) but also creates demand for products and services that wouldn't have existed otherwise.

If you're making the case that our economy would be better off with 12 (or 15) million new workers (and consumers) every three years instead of 13 (or 16) million, you'll have to make the case. If fewer workers (and consumers) always made an economy stronger, Japan's economy would be much stronger than ours.

[jberryhill]

15. "the center would be staffed with specialists who will pore over the I-9 employee files "

That sounds like tedious work.

And probably for low pay.

They should consider outsourcing those jobs to somewhere cost effective.