Thread: Bush Record A Setback for Immigration Reform

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/co ... _0621.html
__________________________________________________ ________

Bush record a setback for immigration reform
Palm Beach Post Editorial

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

President Bush says that an important part of what he wants to see from Congress on an immigration reform proposal is tough penalties for employers who do not follow federal laws on hiring. But it will be difficult for the president to make people take him seriously because his administration has done so little to enforce workplace laws against hiring illegal workers.

Auditors from the Government Accountability Office told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that enforcement of employers has all but evaporated since President Bush took office. Between 1999 and 2004, government fines against companies for violations related to foreign workers declined from 417 to three. The number of employers prosecuted for illegally hiring immigrants fell from 182 to four. The government cut back enforcement operations by 95 percent, the GAO found, as the number of federal officials assigned to work-site operations dropped from 240 to 90. Fines fell from $3.6 million to $212,000.

The administration defends itself with a familiar cover story: After 9/11, Department of Homeland Security immigration officials have had to concentrate on terrorism. A more credible analysis is that the White House has too many friends in certain businesses and too many lobbyists to keep happy to worry about how employers are treating foreign employees. Had there been no 9/11, the administration's numbers probably would look just as bad.

Julie L. Myers, head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency has changed its approach and will enforce the workplace laws by prosecuting executives of the worst companies. Ms. Myers believes that building criminal cases against high-ranking company officials is a more effective deterrent than assessing fines that are quickly paid and forgotten. What does the government intend to do, however, about all the offenders who don't rank among the worst?

After-the-fact high-profile enforcement won't be enough to run the president's proposed guest-worker program. Without compliance, it will be little more than federally approved chaos. Millions of immigrants and their employers will have to play by the rules to make the system work, and it will be the government's responsibility to make sure that they do.

News of the administration's non-enforcement record will help those in Congress who want enforcement-only illegal immigration legislation and have stalled the debate. That will hurt the cause of "reform," but President Bush should have thought of that about 5 1/2 years ago.

Does anyone know what happened to the managers who were arrested in the IFCO raids, a couple weeks ago? What about the employers arrested in the Kentucky raid? I'm just wondering if they're actually prosecuting the employers that they're arresting in these raids or if they just let them go.

From what I understand all the illegal aliens arrested in that raid were released despite the fact they all were using fraudulent id's and ssn's which is inline with this corrupt defacto Mexican Government's policy of amnesty. I also believe no action was taken against any members of management. I find this to be believable due to ICE telling Ohio State Police to release a van filled with 20 illegal aliens stopped at 3am traveling in the wrong direction on the highway. The trooper contacted ICE and was told to release them. All calls to ICE from reporters went unanswered. This drug cartel, Mexican Mafia and fortune 500 controlled administration will never do anything to secure this nation and our people.