Feds should look for illegal workers, not fines
By Enterprise editorial staff
Published 01:10 a.m., Saturday, February 25, 2012
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency searches for illegal immigrants at job sites, something that's vital to any effective policy on immigration. Yet many business owners complain that ICE is more interested in looking for fines than illegal workers.
In one recent group of 800 cases, a third of the businesses were hit with fines totaling $1.8 million even though they had no workers with "suspect documents." The owner of a lighting business in Houston who was cited even though he had no illegal workers said, "They're looking for clerical errors. It's a money grab."
ICE officials say that some of these companies probably had illegal workers but that couldn't be proved because their documentation was incomplete.
Maybe, but the feds don't need any more distractions in the fight against illegal immigration. ICE must focus on real violations, not technical ones, so more businesses welcome its visits instead of dreading them.
EDITORIAL: Feds should look for illegal workers, not fines - Beaumont Enterprise
