Tougher Immigrant Measures Expected
Tougher immigrant measures expected
By Antonio Olivo
Chicago Tribune reporter
2:21 AM CDT, July 9, 2008
Businesses that employ illegal immigrants as workers can expect tougher enforcement through the end of 2008, Julie Myers, head of the federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency, said Tuesday.
In an interview with the Tribune editorial board that also covered the quality of federal detention sites and efforts to deport suspected gang members who are in the U.S. illegally, Myers said stepping up prosecutions of criminally negligent companies is a top priority before the next president takes office in January.
The agency has been criticized in recent months by Immigration rights advocates for treating employers too lightly while aggressively pursuing illegal immigrant workers during work site raids and other actions.
Business groups, meanwhile, have balked at state and local enforcement measures around the country that, among other things, would revoke the licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants. Since October, there have been about 4,100 arrests stemming from Immigration enforcement, with 900 of those apprehended charged criminally.
Of that number, 92 employers or managers have faced criminal charges, Myers said, including two supervisors at Agriprocessors Inc. — the Iowa meatpacking plant that in May was the site of a raid that netted 389 illegal workers.
"It used to be only administrative charges were brought and, often, the fine for hiring an illegal alien was lower than a traffic ticket, especially in the big cities," Myers said. She predicted fines against employers this year would surpass the $30 million in penalties assessed last year.
Aside from the criminal charges, which can take months to bring in often complicated investigations, Myers said her agency has been working to convince companies to "voluntarily comply."
One way has been through "E-verify," a federal software program set up to verify workers' legal status by electronically checking their identities against Social Security records and other government databases, Myers said, adding that more businesses have been stepping forward.
About 70,000 companies now use that software, though critics note it is too error-prone to reliably weed out workers illegally in the country without also affecting thousands of U.S. citizens and legal residents. Thousands more federal contractors will be required to use E-verify after new hiring guidelines were released last month.
Myers said her agency has also been focusing more on companies engaged in "domestic off-shoring," or deliberately hiring illegal workers with fake documents.
"Try to compete with a company like that who has margins you couldn't dream of," she said, referring to complaints from other law-abiding employers about that practice.
"We want to make sure that all American businesses can operate on a level playing field," Myers said.
Tribune reporter Vanessa Bauzá contributed to this report
aolivo@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... rint.story
