Agency's focus since 9/11 has been protection of U.S. infrastructure
Posted on 06/23/2005 12:49:25 PM PDT by Happy2BMe
Agency's focus since 9/11 has been protection of U.S. infrastructure
LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
WASHINGTON - Penalties against employers who hire illegal immigrants have all but disappeared since 1999, a federal homeland security investigator told Congress.
Three U.S. employers were threatened with sanctions in 2004, compared with 162 the previous year and 417 in 1999, Richard M. Stana, director of the homeland security and justice team at the Government Accountability Office, testified Tuesday.
Meanwhile, he said, the number of agents devoted to enforcing employer sanctions has dropped by more than half.
"Worksite enforcement has been a low priority," Stana told a House Judiciary Committee panel on immigration.
A top reason, he said, has been high-level decisions since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to devote immigration enforcement resources toward protecting critical U.S. infrastructure, such as airports and nuclear plants.
But although those efforts have led to increased deportations, no employers who were found to have hired the illegal immigrants faced any kind of financial penalty.
He said that a program called Operation Tarmac, in which the Justice Department conducted sweeps of airport workers, identified 1,000 undocumented workers "but perhaps not as many terrorists as they thought they might identify."
The focus on national security-related investigations, Stana said, "has taken resources away from workplace enforcement."
Sanctions as well as workplace arrests of illegal immigrants have fluctuated since the attacks, dipping sharply in 2002, rising again a year later and deflating once more in 2004.
Also contributing to the lax enforcement, Stana said, is the availability of fraudulent Social Security cards and other documents. Stana said some employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers avoid sanctions by going through the motions of compliance: certifying to federal authorities that they have reviewed work eligibility documents that appear genuine.
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., said the worker sanction program has "failed dramatically," adding, "it's not very easy for something to succeed if it's never implemented."
If the government can't, won't or refuses to enforce current law why should I believe them now that they are calling for new laws? This illegal immigration issue is getting out of hand. It seems that many in congress are getting the word but I fear (oh h*ll) I know they will shove through the system some fine sounding legislation with little or no teeth and no desire to enforce. Just like Bush and the hiring of new BP agents. Sure call for them, have the legislation passed but don't hire them......what can be more Clinton-esk?
Brazos!
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
Until this glaring loophole is fixed through legislation the law is unenforceable. Which is why they passed it in the first place. No one believed it would work, it’s not much of a surprise it failed to have any impact.
"no employers who were found to have hired the illegal immigrants faced any kind of financial penalty."
Congressional meddling with executive branch bureaucracies almost certainly plays a large role here, as does Presidential disinterest.
I have been preaching on this issue a long while: if the law were enforced on employers' duty to examine legal hiring status, there would be few illegals coming to the U.S. Instead raids round up illegals and let the guilty employer go. Not a slap on the wrist--no penalty at all.
"Until this glaring loophole is fixed through legislation the law is unenforceable."
That is simply not true. As noted above, this law HAS been enforced. Most of the employers "going through the motions" are still easily busted because it's simply so obvious their employees' documents are fakes--if they have them at all. The problem is that enforcement takes political backbone. ongress and the Presidnet will not stand up to the meatpackers and agribusinesses that are using these illegals en masse, so federal bureaucracies cannot enforce the law without fear of having their personal budgets sliced and their staff decimated whenever Tyson or ADM calls their congressman.
"We really need to start electing some grass-roots people into the government, these lawyers, businessmen and bureaucrats just aren't working out."
Where's Jimmy Stewart when you need him?
I respectfully disagree. The most egregious violators are never fined. You have to be felony stupid to not fill out the I-9 and make a copy of the false documents presented. Those are the only people who get fined. The employer is NOT responsible to verify the authenticity of the documents presented, to add insult to injury, the employer can be fined for a civil rights violation if they require an employee to produce documentation beyond what is required by the I-9.
Believe me the law is buggered up. Do you really think that the completely under funded ICE agency would blowing off employers sanctions if they could be raking in millions in fines? They would be on this like a hobo on a ham sandwich.
Until employers are required to verify the eligibility of applicants this remains smoke and mirrors.
I completely agree which the rest of your comments.
The federal government has failed to enforce the immigration laws of this nation. Instead, they tell us to except the illegals. Meanwhie, they tell us our property isn't ours anymore.
What use is our government except as aggressors against us?
seizure of citizen's property to redistribute to other citizens
estimated 40% - 45% of income taken by various levels of government in taxes
hammering cancer patients over smoking pot
at least 50,000,000 babies shredded to death since 1973
1,000,000+ babies legally shredded to death every year.
There's just nothing to be said any longer.
There is no debate really. If I don't submit they will kill me.
Shall I live in peace with this evil? hmmmmm
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me death!" by Patrick Henry
Look, we probably don't even disagree here about the applicability of the law or that it may be difficult to use it, but the fact is that employers CAN be fined for accepting fraudulent documents. If the INS determines that the employer has engaged in a pattern or practice of knowingly hiring unauthorized aliens, that employer is barred from claiming good faith compliance under the IIRAIRA. You can make copies of false docs all you want, but if Homeland Security shows up at a place known for illegal hires and all the employees run, you as an employer will be just as legally liable when the files are full of fakes as they are empty. "Knowingly" is implied when the violations are regular.
Unfortunately, they can ALSO be fined for inquiring too much, so they are damned if they do and don't.
While the most egregious violators are never fined, I am firm in the belief that it is NOT because they aren't breaking the law--who doesn't know which meatpackers hire illegals?--and NOT because there is no legal tool to enforce that law--damned if you do or don't is still damned--but because there is no political will to enforce the law against the big violators.
Richard M. Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told Congress that "Issues of national security have been the focus of ICE investigations, and while none of us wants to see another September 11, work-site enforcement has been discouraged...Fines are often negotiated so low they are viewed by employers as a cost of doing business instead of a punishment."
Kevin Jeffrey, ICE-LA: "We can fine employers...[but] it has been an issue where a lot of those fines are settled for pennies on the dollar, and if you got a multi-million dollar business, what's a $10,000 fine?...[D]o we really want employers to go to jail for doing this or do we want to just do what we've been doing and winking at them and, you know, kind of letting it go by the board?"
That doesn't sound like a plea to change the law to me or an acknowledgement the law is toothless, but like it has always been a political decision to focus on terrorism instead of illegal employment practices. And that would be a legit decision if one didn't provide cover for the other.
George W. Bush's America - where everyone has to follow the laws except illegal aliens and their employers, who get off scot-free.
Wait another 18 months. Critical mass will be sometime around then (when the entire nation just can't take it anymore).
"Another example of our hard earned tax dollars at work."
=========================================
Perhaps not enough money is going to the right places . .
U.S. Border Patrol agents say they are the victims of escalating violence.
The problem is getting so bad, the Border Patrol says numbers of assaults against them are up almost 50% from where they were last year.
Agents in the Tucson sector are patrolling a total of 261 miles of border, but some are doing it from the confines of a cage.
The vehicles are called 'war wagons', literally designed to protect against rocks and boulders thrown by illegal smugglers.
But the metal caging won't protect agents from a problem that's gaining even more momentum.
"When our agents try to do a vehicle stop, criminal element try to run over our agent to evade arrest," says agent Jose Garza, from the Tucson sector.
So far this fiscal year, the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol has reported 163 acts of assault against agents, compared to a total of 118 for the entire fiscal year of 2004.
National reports say vehicle rammings are up 188%, shootings are up 122% and cases of rock throwing are up 23%.
Garza says, "They're getting frustrated because we're out there. We're encountering them more times."
Agent Garza says he knows, with more manpower and resources, will come more encounters with criminal activity.
There are no reports at this time of deaths or serious injuries to agents. Garza says those on patrol are constantly being trained about the dangers along the international line.
(We SHOULDN'T have voted for Pedro)
How could we have known?
Thank you for the post! I heard Roger Hedgecock mention that on Rush yesterday. What a disgrace. THREE? They only cut the number of agents to one half. What kind of agents are they? BEAM ... ME ... UP!
Those agents should be looked into. Any of them who didn't catch one person last year should be fired. To heck with unions. Bust their freaking union!
For the sake of overkill, thought I'd ping you.
Not when your supervisor orders you to 'stand down' and refrain from arresting illegal migrants for weeks at a time.
The soldiers reflect their commanders, the commanders thier king.
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