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Employers getting a closer look on immigrant issue
Thursday, September 21, 2006
By Matt Dunn
gcnews@sjnewsco.com
BRIDGETON -- Federal inquiries into the ownership of buses with Texas license plates parked at the Dollar Super Store last spring could be part of an effort to crack down on businesses employing illegal immigrants.

Police suspected the buses may have been transporting illegal immigrants.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) concentrates much of its efforts on the capture and deportation of fugitive illegal immigrants and immigrants who commit major crimes.

Bridgeton Police Chief Jeff Wentz said ICE agents were not interested in checking on the bus passengers. Instead, federal agents were interested in who was behind the wheel, someone who may have provided them with an answer as to where the buses were headed.

ICE is furthering an initiative, backed by $41.7 million in additional funding in fiscal year 2007, to hire 171 special agents and 35 support personnel to enhance work site enforcement investigations.

"Businesses are required to follow the law," ICE Spokesman Mike Gilhooly said. "The law requires new employees to fill out an I-9 form, which requires individuals to show certain types of identification from certain lists."

This could mean a Social Security card or resident alien card.

Since these documents can be forged, the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service provide a web-based database for employers to verify the employment status of newly hired workers.

The database is a pilot program and not available to all employers, according to immigration lawyer Valentine Brown.

President Bush's immigration reform plan voted down by the House of Representatives last year would have provided all employers with access.


The end result is what keeps ICE busy.

So far in this fiscal year, the organization has launched more than 219 criminal work site investigations across the nation.

Not only is the federal government's presence being felt more and more, the penalties have grown harsher.

"What we've begun to do over the last couple of years is focus on giving criminal charges to businesses that knowingly employ illegal aliens," Gilhooly said.

In past years, employers utilizing the help of illegal immigrants were fined, which was chalked up as just another business expense.

Now, these same employers face much higher fines and potential jail time.

ICE has also increased their effort to target "company executives and people who transport illegal aliens."

The cases investigated by ICE so far in this fiscal year have resulted in 382 criminal arrests, 82 criminal indictments and 80 criminal convictions.

Much of the time ICE targets large-scale businesses, Wal-Mart being one example.

But the trend could be moving toward smaller businesses, indicated by recent arrests at two Mexican restaurants in Missouri and Iowa.

In May 2006, ICE agents arrested the owner of the two restaurants on charges he knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

In addition, 21 illegal immigrants were arrested during the execution of search warrants on the eateries.

Brown said she cannot recall the last time a business in South Jersey was cited by federal authorities, but said it's possible the region could be targeted next by ICE.

"ICE is increasing their presence all over the country," she stated. "When you think about 171 officers spread across 50 states, that's not much."

But, according to Brown, New Jersey is number four in states with the highest immigrant population.

"We are one of the more popular states as far as immigrants are concerned," she said. "So we have a greater concentration of enforcement efforts (despite) a lack of huge industries like in the Midwest."

Gilhooly said ICE relies on the help of local law enforcement to report businesses suspected of participating in illegal activity.

"We are the same as any law enforcement agency," he said. "We develop leads from a wide variety of sources."

Local law enforcement walk a fine line between their obligation to assist ICE and their own interests.

Cumberland County Prosecutor Ron Casella won't release the names of illegal immigrants to the media.

He said he doesn't want to damage his office's relationship with the immigrant community, who are often reluctant to act as witnesses because of their immigration status.

The prosecutor stated he does cooperate with ICE when his office takes an individual into custody who might be an illegal immigrant.

Wentz said the city's economy would crumble without illegal immigrants.

In spite of these affirmations, the immigrant community is scared, according to Brown.

It's not just the immigrants - it's most farms and businesses, who Brown said really do want to have legal workers.

"In my practice, I have farmers and landscape company owners calling me every day asking about how they can sponsor these employees and get them legal," she said. "In my experience, they want them to be legal. They want them to have driver's licenses. It's not to their advantage to have illegal workers."