Posted on 10/22/2005 10:35:26 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
When it comes to cracking down on companies that hire illegal immigrants, the federal government appears to be missing in action, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.
Between fiscal year 1999 and fiscal year 2003, the report shows that the number of work-site arrests in the United States by government immigration agents fell by 83 percent, dropping from 2,849 arrests in 1999, to 485 in 2003, the last year for which Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided data to the accountability office.
Another indicator of the downward trend revealed in the report was the number of employers who were fined for hiring undocumented immigrants.
In 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service issued 427 "Notices of Intent to Fine" to companies across the nation.
But in fiscal year 2004, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was formed in 2003 to do the job of the INS, issued just three such notices in the entire country, according to the report.
State Assemblyman Mark Wyland, R-Vista, said Friday that he was "dismayed" by the numbers.
"We are not enforcing the law and not demonstrating that we are serious about enforcing order and immigration law," Wyland said.
A top official with the U.S. Government Accountability Office said Thursday that the federal government needs to make drastic changes in immigration policy to control illegal immigration, as highlighted by the report, which he helped write.
The Government Accountability Office is an independent, nonpartisan agency within the legislative branch of the federal government that is commonly called the "investigative arm of Congress." It supports congressional oversight by reporting on how government programs and policies are working, auditing federal agencies for effective use of taxpayer dollars, investigating allegations of illegal and improper activities and issuing legal decisions and opinions.
The late August report, entitled "Immigration Enforcement: Weaknesses Hinder Employment Verification and Worksite Enforcement Efforts," shows a third indicator of the downward trend ---- the number of man-hours dedicated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to workplace enforcement.
The amount of time spent on work-site enforcement efforts dropped by 63 percent between 1999 and 2003, the report states.
Accountability office urges reform
Top GAO official Rich Stena, director for Homeland Security and Justice with the accountability office, said that for years the government has focused on enforcement along the nation's borders and security-sensitive work sites such as nuclear plants and airports, but has failed to adequately police other types of businesses that often hire undocumented immigrants.
"What happens is you put everyone on the line of scrimmage and once you get past the line of scrimmage, everyone scores a touchdown," Stena said. "What we really need is an entire reformulation of our immigration policy."
An effective restructuring would have to include several elements, he added, such as:
a method for determining the number of foreign workers the U.S. economy needs.
a reliable worker verification system that would allow employers and the government to know who is authorized to work in this country.
a credible enforcement strategy, so that those who violate the law can be dealt with.
"Right now, we have none of the three," Stena said Thursday. "The question is: How many of those people does our economy require and how do we as a nation get control over the work-site?"
An official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that she believes the agency is doing an excellent job in the areas that are most important, such as protecting security-sensitive sites in the country and targeting serious criminal activity.
"The story is in post 9-11 era, (the agency) has protected national security and public safety, as well as (making) countless arrests of illegal aliens working at critical infrastructure and sensitive security sites such as power plants, chemical plants, military bases and commercial airports," said agency spokeswoman Jamie Zuieback.
In the last year, they have caught about 150 illegal immigrants at military installations around the country, according to Zuieback.
Wyland says enforce first
Wyland, who is preparing to run for a seat in U.S. Congress next year, said Friday that while he agrees with Stena's calls for a reformulation of immigration policy, he would only support the reform recommendations once the federal government has increased enforcement of the nation's borders and called Mexico to task for what he called its tacit endorsement of illegal immigration into the United States.
"The No. 1 element is showing that you mean business about the border," Wyland said. "Unless we enforce the law, there is no credibility to the rest of it."
He said the U.S. Border Patrol needs to hire thousands more agents to patrol the border and conduct inland sweeps such as the ones it conducted in June 2004. Those sweeps, which resulted in 11,000 people being questioned and 330 arrests in inland communities in San Diego and Riverside counties, caused a firestorm of protest from immigration activists.
"If you dramatically increased the sweeps inland and at the same time insisted with Mexico that (it help reduce illegal immigration), then you could have total reform," Wyland said.
A local immigration activist said that she believes that Wyland is extremist in his views on immigration. She said that the Latino community was outraged by the sweeps and that many people were stopped on the streets by Border Patrol agents simply because they were Latino.
"The sweeps resulted in violations of human rights and racial profiling," said Consuelo Martinez, coordinator for the Escondido Human Rights Committee, which has fought strict immigration enforcement efforts, such as the sweeps.
Causes of declines
The report attributed the decrease in work-site arrests and fines to two main causes: the shifting of agents away from traditional work-site enforcement as the immigration agency focuses on criminal alien cases and homeland security; and the increasing use of falsified documents by illegal immigrants to get work.
Under current law, employers can only be fined if it can be demonstrated that they knew workers' documents were forged.
"Various studies have shown that the availability and use of fraudulent documents have made it difficult for ICE agents to prove that employers knowingly hire unauthorized workers," the report states.
In addition, GAO's Stena said, computers and the Internet have allowed forgers to significantly improve the quality of forged documents that some workers are presenting to employers.
Referring to the drop in work-site enforcement, the report stated GAO officials interviewed several Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and immigration experts, who "noted that the focus on critical infrastructure protection does not address the majority of work-sites in industries that have traditionally provided the magnet of jobs attracting illegal aliens to the United States." Advocates on both sides of the immigration debate have said illegal workers are common in many fields, such as agriculture, hotels and restaurants.
Effects on families
Christian Ramirez, a local advocate for protecting the human rights of undocumented immigrants, said Friday that he agrees with Stena's call for a complete reformulation of immigration policy.
However, he said that whatever the government decides to do, it must not allow increased work-site enforcement to threaten immigrant families already in this country. If a working mom or dad is deported because of increased work-site enforcement, it would have a devastating effect on the children, he said.
"We have to recognize the fact that (some) folks have been living in this country without documents for 20 years, and we cannot separate families," Ramirez said. "Any reform that does not guarantee the integrity of families will fail."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
"My understanding is that the IRS is not allowed to communicate with neither the S.S.A. nor Immigration agencies. Heck, the IRS is the agency issuing ITINs to illegal aliens. They only care about taxes due, not where/how you managed to get your hands on the money."
I see the distinction now - the employer is required to ask for a valid social security number but the IRS is not allowed to double check that or help with illegal immigrant prosecutions.
9/11 is precisely the reason that the border should be protected at all costs. Dealing with 9/11 is no excuse at all for lax enforcement. Terrorists can sneak across the border and work in the US while being in sleeper cells.
The Bush43 administration has no record to brag about on border enforcement.
You would think that would be the case, but all they do now is divert the SS payments to a suspense fund, rather than crediting them to the real owner of the SSN.
"9/11 is precisely the reason that the border should be protected at all costs. Dealing with 9/11 is no excuse at all for lax enforcement. Terrorists can sneak across the border and work in the US while being in sleeper cells.
The Bush43 administration has no record to brag about on border enforcement"
I hope you weren't expecting disagreement..
But nonetheless this is going to help Hillary.
If ICE were to go through the west side of Mt Vernon, Wa, and deport all of the illegals there, that part of town would be nearly empty.
I live in Seattle. ICE could round up 100 illegals an hour here, if they actually wanted to. They aren't even trying.
It's worse than that. The employer is required to ask, but they are not required to report it to anybody. It's an honor system, basically. Stupid.
OK, that is worse... My experience was with a weapons research program so they may have been extra careful... the subcontractor that cleans Walmarts at night might be slack.
If our government was doing its job, there wouldn't be any illegal aliens working at critical infrastructure and sensitive security sites such as power plants, chemical plants, military bases and commercial airports.
I wish Jorge' would just publish a list of laws that we really do not have to abide by. Life would be so much easier.
Maybe now you folks will understand why we are sceptical of Bush's promises on border control??
>>"We have to recognize the fact that (some) folks have been living in this country without documents for 20 years, and we cannot separate families," Ramirez said. "Any reform that does not guarantee the integrity of families will fail."<<
Hey Judge, that was 20 years ago that I snuck across the border and robbed that guy. I wouldn't have shot him if he didn't mouth off that he was a cop.
Could it be that big GOP donors hire a lot of illegals and why should the administration bite the hand that feeds them?
I don't hire illegals, but I do pay a helluva lot of taxes to keep them in health care, public services, infrastructure, and schools. I just can't afford it anymore. Lettuce for a buck and a half at the supermarket is just not worth it.
This is just another form of socialist wealth redsitribution from the middle class to illegal immigrants and business owners who hire them.
We need to do both. But I still think enforcing the border is far easier than enforcing the workplaces.
Sounds exactly like this Administration's policy, and when the citizenry try to help they get scoffed as "vigilantes."
This is fairly outrageous on the face of it, I must say...
Must also say, though, that "El Presidente" is not single-handedly responsible for the predicaments created by Congress when they crafted the structure and rules for the new "Homeland Security"...
How about someone just start showing some practical leadership here, and we all work to support whoever has a realistic solution for immigration/border control?!
Let me guess. You wouldn't happen to think that a "realistic solution" would be some kind of "guest worker" program, now would you ?
The truth is not spin!
When President Bush took office there were about 6 to 8 million illegals. That means that in the 14 years (2 years of Reagan, 4 years of Bush '41 and 8 years of Clinton) since the Reagan Amnesty we netted somewhere around 500,000 illegals per year. In the less than 5 years that President Bush has been in office the number of illegals has grown to somewhere between 11 and 20 million. Assuming the most generous scenario to him, if there were 8 million when he took office and 11 million now that is 3 million on his watch or at least 600,000 per year. President Bush's efforts at protecting our border during a time of war have been substantially less successful then his predecessors.
And the President's record on workplace enforcement is so much worse then any of his predecessors that it would be an absolutely laughable attempt at spin to try to claim otherwise.
President Bush has done his best to make the illegals comfortable. It was his Administration that gave the banks the OK to start accepting Matricula Consular identity cards as valid ID despite warnings from the FBI that they were not secure and that identity fraud with these cards was rampant. This ridiculous decision came not long after 9/11 when we all learned how the terrorists had used our lax banking laws to launder the money that was used to finance the attacks against us.
President Bush will undoubtedly be criticized for being weak on illegal immigration when the Democrats and Hillary gear up for the next election cycle. But the criticism will be well deserved, not spin.
Hunh. I wonder what the numbers would be if we had a President who obeyed and enforced the law?
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