Employers may pay price for not embracing changes
Employers may pay price for not embracing changes
By Devona Walker
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50
Published: January 5, 2008
The Department of Homeland Security significantly stepped up immigration enforcement efforts in 2007.
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What is ICE ACCESS?
•287(g) Program: This program cross-designates local officers to enforce immigration law.
•Asset Forfeiture: It allows ICE agents to seize and forfeit illicit proceeds and other criminally derived assets.
•Border Enforcement Security Task Forces: It allows Homeland Security law enforcement agencies, working cooperatively with other law enforcement entities, to comprehensively identify organizations posing significant threats to border security. BEST Task Forces are currently in Arizona, California and Texas.
•Criminal Alien Program: It focuses on identifying criminal aliens who are incarcerated within federal, state and local facilities, ensuring they are deported upon serving sentences.
•Customs Cross-Designation: It allows federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement officers who participate primarily on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement task force operations to be cross designated as "customs officers” and be granted the authority to enforce U.S. customs law.
•Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces: It targets benefit fraud, identity theft and documentation fraud. It was initially launched in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia, St. Paul, Minn., and Washington, D.C. In April 2007, additional task forces were added in Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, Fla., Phoenix, San Francisco and Tampa, Fla., bringing the total to 17 nationwide.
•Equitable Sharing/Joint Operations: This gives Homeland Security the ability to offer payment to local law enforcement for their cooperation and assistance in immigration enforcement. In fiscal year 2006, ICE coordinated payments of $5.65 million in overtime costs for state and local police officers working alongside ICE agents throughout the U.S., and provided $43.46 million in direct payments of equitable sharing of forfeited assets to 362 state and local agencies, four federal agencies and one foreign government.
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Fugitive Operation Teams: They identify, locate, apprehend, process and remove fugitive aliens from the United States with the highest priority placed on those fugitives who have been convicted of crimes.
•Other enforcement programs operating under the ICE ACCESS umbrella: The ICE-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, Law Enforcement Support, Operation Firewall, Operation Predator and Operation Community Shield — which in 2007 netted the arrest of 65 alleged illegal immigrant gang members in Oklahoma City.
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Worksite enforcement
The federal immigration agency also ramped up other enforcement teams. For instance, Fugitive Operations Teams — which focus on finding illegal immigrants who already have been asked to leave the country, have criminal convictions in other countries or are fugitives — arrested more than 30,000 illegal immigrants nationally, doubling its 2006 numbers.
In north Texas and Oklahoma, those teams arrested 1,600, which also doubled 2006 numbers. Of those arrested, 699 were fugitives and 168 were illegal immigrants with criminal convictions. Nearly 1,100 of those arrested in Oklahoma and north Texas have been deported to their countries of origin.
A raid in Oklahoma City in early September, involving the federal program Operation Community Shield with cooperation of state and local officials, netted 65 alleged immigrant gang members.
However, workplace raids targeting employers present an additional burden on the immigration agency. Experts say it is easier to round up illegal immigrants in the workplace than it is to prove that employers knowingly hired illegal immigrants. Workplace arrests are made at a ratio of about 50 employees to one employer.
Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research group, says arresting employers is more difficult and time consuming, but the government must improve this ratio to change behavior.
"They want to change the calculations that employers make. If the risk is too small, they will behave exactly the way they've been behaving,” Papademetriou said.
Experts say both sides of the immigration debate estimate at least a million companies employ more than 7 million unauthorized workers. Only 17 companies faced criminal fines or other forfeitures this year.
"It's easy to arrest and remove illegal resident persons. It's very difficult to try to have conspiracy and other charges thrown at employers. The law as it is written protects employers,” Papademetriou said. "Employers are not required to find out if the documents are legal, but whether on their face they look legal.”
Experts say the Department of Homeland Security's most effective worksite enforcement tool is still being litigated in court. The proposal is for no-match letters to go out to employers with workers whose names do not match their Social Security numbers. Employers would have 90 days to fix the discrepancy or terminate the worker.
"These no-match letters would be such a critical tool in the arsenal for immigration enforcement,” Papademetriou said.
‘Could have done more'
Papademetriou thinks employers, for political and ideological reasons, will stay on the government's radar.
"This administration is trying to reclaim credibility in terms of immigration enforcement,” Papademetriou said. "The business community was a very, very weak actor during the attempt to pass immigration reform. They could have done more. Now, it is time for employers to pay the price for not helping with immigration reform.”
Low employer arrest numbers also show the need to make programs like E-Verify mandatory, said Center for Immigration Studies senior policy analyst Jessica Vaughan.
"What it shows too is how difficult it is to prove employers are knowingly hiring illegal immigrants,” Vaughan said. "This is one great argument for mandatory participation in E-Verify.”
E-Verify is a free, Internet-based system that provides an automated link to federal databases to help employers determine employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers. It is currently mandatory only in Arizona.
"Workplace enforcement efforts are important,” Vaughan said. "But I don't think it takes criminal charges to send that message home.”
Some local employers are obviously already feeling the pain. A few years ago, Sulphur saddle maker Billy Cook lost his entire staff to an immigration raid, about 51 employees.
Dozens of federal agents came, seized company documents, confiscated computers and took his employees into custody. Cook pleaded guilty to conspiracy and faces up to 25 years in prison and $150,000 in fines.
Authorities allege from 2000 through 2005, Cook supplied false data to the Social Security Administration on his workers.
‘Only people willing to work'
Other small-business owners have escaped the long arm of immigration enforcement. But often say they have no idea if all their workers are authorized.
"People don't want to work anymore. They want to collect the check, but they don't want to work for it,” said Bill Paul, who owns a small oil company in between Stratford and Pauls Valley.
"The country pretty much opens the borders to the only people willing to work, then they tell me it's illegal for me to hire them. I've been having a real hard time getting my head around the whole thing.”
Immigration agency officials say it is in the midst of reinventing itself and giving Americans a reason to believe they are serious about enforcing immigration laws.
"Make a quick reference between the old INS and ICE. ICE has significantly more teeth,” said Carl Rusnok, regional spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Under the old INS, employers were essentially fined for hiring unauthorized workers. It was considered the cost of doing business, Rusnok said.
Related Topics:
Domestic Policy, Social Policy, Political Policy, Politics, Social Issues, Immigration Policy, Trials, Criminal Trials, Immigration
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So I hit the wrong key.. BIG DEAL... YOU MORON
Brenda, - Jan 5, 2008 9:21 PM
Gripped by uncertainty, government and private employers last month added the fewest new jobs to their payrolls in more than four years. In fact, employment at private companies alone actually declined...they have outlived their welcome , they need to go home.
None of this has anything to do with the topic but just to give you a heads up on it. As for this Desiderius person everything he writes is usually total garbage & vile. Of course this is just my opinion. The topic at hand is we have to take a stand against these employers & I hope it will start right here at home.
Readers express a variety of opinions in their letters to FLORIDA TODAY.
Illegals are criminals, plain and simple
The Dec. 27 editorial headlined "Tide of intolerance" is another unique viewpoint of FLORIDA TODAY.
It focuses the readers attention on the fact that Hispanics feel they are being subjected to "anti-immigrant sentiments," when the issue is actually "anti-illegal alien sentiments."
People who are in this country legally are welcome to come join us and be an American. However, those who broke our immigration laws and bypassed our immigration system are illegal aliens, not undocumented workers, or any of the softer names given to them by the media.
They are criminals. Without exception, they must be deported. We are held accountable for breaking our laws; why should illegal aliens be different?
No country can absorb 14 million unexpected individuals who demand resources such as schools, medical care and social programs without some type of anti-sentiments to those creating the demands.
All of this has nothing to do with "dishonoring America," it has to do with enforcing the laws of this great nation we have built and so many have died for.
Don't give that away to the illegal immigrants, regardless of their origin.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080105/OPINION/801050313/1004