Immigration audits take place of raids on places of employment

* By Daniel Connolly
* Posted November 29, 2009 at midnight

In August 2008, federal agents arrested about 600 suspected illegal immigrants at Howard Industries Inc., a maker of electrical transformers in Laurel, Miss.

Today, the government might take a different approach.

Instead of making mass arrests, the government is reviewing employment records at hundreds of companies nationwide in an effort to keep illegal immigrants out of the workplace. The actions mean unauthorized workers are more likely to face job loss than prison and deportation.

The policy change may already be affecting companies and workers in Memphis, though the agency in charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wouldn't confirm that.

The situation is the latest twist in a decades-old struggle over immigration policy. It's very difficult for low-skilled workers from Latin America to enter the United States legally. Yet there has historically been tremendous business demand for their labor, and the government has often tolerated their illegal employment.

Enforcement picked up in the last years of the Bush administration, but it's still not consistent.

For instance, current law says employers have to ask job applicants for ID, but don't have to confirm it's real, and fraud is common. And the Internal Revenue Service encourages illegal immigrants to pay income taxes without fear of punishment.

President Barack Obama supports an overhaul of immigration law that would give illegal immigrants a shot at legal status, but such a measure might never get through Congress.

In the meantime, ICE is pursuing its audits. It announced earlier this month that it will review employment records at 1,000 companies nationwide to determine if employers are properly checking identification and filling out the form I-9, a document meant to ensure that only people with work authorizations get jobs.

The government says it's using investigative leads to target companies that have a connection to "critical infrastructure," such as airports and utilities.

An employer who hires someone not authorized to work in the United States is breaking the law, "whether they do it by mistake or knowingly," ICE spokesman Ivan L. Ortiz-Delgado said. Audits can lead to fines or even criminal charges for employers.

He wouldn't name the companies targeted in the audits or say if any are in Memphis. But he did say there are seven in Tennessee, seven in Arkansas, and two in Mississippi.

Earlier this year, the agency said it was auditing more than 650 other companies. It's imposed fines in 45 cases so far and may do so in others.

The audits come as the nation's unemployment rate has risen to 10.2 percent, the highest since 1983.

Mark Krikorian, a critic of illegal immigration, said he'd like to see the illegal immigrants arrested, not simply fired and allowed to find another job.

"On the other hand, this kind of policy can do some good if it's widespread enough and sustained for a long time," said Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. Illegal immigrants might decide to go home, and others might not come at all, he said. And employers might work harder to screen employees, for instance, by enrolling in the government's E-Verify program, he said.

Some have criticized the audits. After an audit led to the firings of about 1,800 workers at the Los Angeles operations of garment maker American Apparel, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called the action "devastating."

The audits and workplace raids are "two arms of the same flawed strategy," said Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition."It is a very poor substitute for realistic reform of our outdated immigration system," he said. The audits will simply drive immigrants out of on-the-books jobs and into the black market economy, depriving the government of tax revenue and oversight, he said.

In Memphis, immigration attorney Greg Siskind says the audits are more effective than mass arrests.

"In terms of resources, I think they can probably do a lot more in terms of changing employer behavior by going this route," said Siskind.

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