Thread: Company officials are targeted in fight against illegal hiri

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/15542430.htm

Posted on Sun, Sep. 17, 2006


Company officials are targeted in fight against illegal hiring

By PATRICK McGEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

The federal government has been lax about work site enforcement of immigration laws, according to government reports. But officials in the field say they're making a record number of arrests.

Immigration officials dedicated only 4 percent of their time to workplace enforcement from 1997 to 2003, according to the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. A Government Accountability Office report released in June shows that workplace enforcement continued to be a "low priority" when Immigration and Customs Enforcement was formed in 2003.

John Chakwin said that's not what he sees as special agent in charge of ICE's Dallas office.

"That report may say that, but I can tell you it's never been far from us," he said, adding that ICE focuses on work sites that might be infiltrated by terrorists, such as airports and nuclear and defense plants.

Arresting employers

ICE has made more than 400 criminal arrests in the workplace nationally for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Chakwin said, adding that the figure is a record. And the 400 arrested are not immigrants who will be deported, but people such as top company officials who will be prosecuted for violating immigration laws.

About 2,700 illegal immigrants have also been arrested during the same period at work sites, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said. These administrative arrests usually result in speedy deportations.

An April 20 raid on IFCO Systems of North America, a Houston-based pallet company, resulted in more than 1,000 administrative arrests of illegal immigrants and nine criminal arrests, including seven managers and employees, in 26 states. The managers and employees were charged with transporting and harboring illegal immigrants and encouraging them to stay in the United States.

Rusnok said 93 illegal immigrants were arrested at the Dallas IFCO plant, with 87 of them immediately deported to Mexico.

Chakwin said ICE has given up on fining companies for hiring illegal immigrants and is instead arresting company officials because that's a much better deterrent.

Estimates of illegal immigrants in the work force suggest that such raids have not yet deterred many employers. Illegal immigrants make up about 5 percent of America's work force, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.

They are a huge part of Texas' agricultural industry, said Ray Prewett, executive vice president of the Texas Vegetable Association.

Prewett spoke at an Aug. 29 news conference in Dallas, where businessmen gathered to say immigration reform should not involve increased enforcement but instead allow illegal immigrants to work legally.

"You can't send these people back across the border, because who's going to do the work?" Prewett said at the news conference.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that pushes for tighter immigration controls, sees Prewett as an apologist for big business.

Thwarting enforcement

He says that tough workplace enforcement never lasts because businesses push back through elected representatives and get immigration officials to ease up.

He points to a vigorous enforcement program in Nebraska's meat-packing industry in the late 1990s that was stopped when the industry complained.

A report released by the Congressional Research Service this year said the increased Nebraska enforcement "prompted a strong political backlash, and was ended."

Mark Reed, an Immigration and Naturalization Service official who spearheaded the tough enforcement in Nebraska, testified before Congress that the enforcement "was not good government" because it "was a major threat to the livelihood of everyone in the community."

Krikorian said such retreat sends the wrong message.

"We're strengthening the magnet by sending the message that there isn't going to be any enforcement," he said. "It's become safe to employ illegal immigrants."

Immigration officials do not deny what happened in Nebraska, but Chakwin said it's not happening in the district he covers.

"We haven't had anybody push back," he said. "They know we're out there."

Alberto, 30, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, said he knows that immigration officials are out there but that has not deterred him from going to work.

A temp agency has set him up with numerous jobs as a welder all over Fort Worth, said Alberto, who spoke to the Star-Telegram on the condition that his last name not be used.

But he said some of his friends have skipped work if they see someone lurking around the job site who looks like an immigration official. Sometimes, he said, they call to warn one another.

Alberto said if he was ever caught and deported he would simply return because his family is here.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez, an assistant U.S. attorney who handles most immigration cases for the Northern District of Texas, said he probably would not prosecute a worker like Alberto for illegal entry or even illegal re-entry because he does not have a criminal record and is not a gang member. He would leave it to immigration officials to deport him.

Targeting terrorists

The GAO report cited a 2004 memo from a top Department of Homeland Security official that stated that immigrants detained as a result of work site investigations should be "the lowest priority" while subjects of national security investigations should be the "highest priority."

Americans think work site enforcement would be the most effective tool in cutting down on illegal immigration, according to polls.

Forty-nine percent of Americans believe penalizing employers would reduce illegal immigration, according to a Pew Research Center poll released earlier this year. A third thought more Border Patrol agents would help, and only 9 percent thought building more fences on the border would do it.

Fort Worth resident Jane Patterson is among those who think the federal government should get tougher with employers.

Patterson showed up with a sign that said "Enforce our laws" at a Farmers Branch City Council meeting on Sept. 5. The city became a flashpoint for the immigration debate because of anti-illegal-immigrant ordinances proposed by a council member.

"The employer is the magnet. The employer would be the ultimate problem," she said. "Ultimately, we can control the employer."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick McGee, 817-685-3806 pmcgee@star-telegram.com

A temp agency has set him up with numerous jobs as a welder all over Fort Worth, said Alberto

They need to go after these temp services. Temp services like Manpower and Workforce are a big part of the problem. They are sub-contractors for employer's. We have several factories in our area that are using these sub-contractors to hire illegals. The sub-contractor is the one that is responsible for checking documents. One factory that has signed up on the pilot program proclaiming that they do not hire illegals that I know of is hiring illegals through manpower and workforce.