Workplace Immigration Inquiries Quadruple Under Trump

Wall Street Journal ^ | December 5, 2019 | Michelle Hackman

[karpov]

WASHINGTON—Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened about four times the number of workplace investigations in the year ended Sept. 30 compared with the close of the Obama administration, while starting fewer probes into gangs, weapons and financial crimes, according to new figures the agency provided to The Wall Street Journal.

ICE’s focus on workplace enforcement—targeting both immigrants working illegally and their employers—has intensified in the past two years. Homeland Security Investigations, the ICE arm that carries out criminal investigations, opened 6,812 new workplace cases in the 2019 fiscal year, up from 1,701 during fiscal 2016. The agency made 2,048 administrative arrests, primarily of illegal immigrants, up roughly 500 from the year before.

ICE carried out one of its most-high-profile investigations in August, raiding several food-processing plants in Mississippi and detaining about 680 immigrants working in the country illegally.

President Trump has focused his immigration crackdown on preventing new immigrants from crossing the border illegally and discouraging those who do cross from seeking legal protections such as asylum that allow them to stay and work. The data show that, in the past two years, the administration has also put a greater emphasis on enforcement efforts that make it tougher for illegal immigrants to find jobs.

The emphasis on immigration enforcement is new for Homeland Security Investigations, a law-enforcement agency under ICE with a broad mandate to go after international gangs, weapons, drug smuggling and human trafficking. Agents work on cases from bitcoin seizure to art theft.

“With ICE, people don’t often make it past the ‘I,’” said Alysa Erichs, the acting executive associate director for Homeland Security Investigations. “We are so much more than immigration.”

Agency officials said that, in recent years, some state and local law-enforcement agencies have expressed unwillingness to work with its criminal investigators

[neverevergiveup]

Good.

[Gamecock]

Winning.

[mewzilla]

This could be solved in a heartbeat: Issue every American citizen at birth, at no out of pocket cost to the cit, a passport. Renew the passport periodically, again at no out of pocket cost to the cit. Enable employers to ask to see the prospective employee’s passport before hiring.

We already have a national ID card. It’s called a passport.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

+1

[Buckeye McFrog]

“With ICE, people don’t often make it past the ‘I,’” said Alysa Erichs, the acting executive associate director for Homeland Security Investigations. “We are so much more than immigration.”

Yeah from what I see you expend the majority of your bandwidth intercepting knockoff NFL merchandise.

[ByteMercenary]

Good indeed.

If the roofers working on your house or the guys mowing your lawn cannot understand English, turn them in as soon as they finish up.

[RideForever]

Let’s hope Pres. Trump puts the full package out there. This should be part of a Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement bill, missing since 1987 ONE TIME amnesty. The List of Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement, missing since 1987 goes like this -

1) southern barrier;
2) require eVerify to hire;
3) end all chain migration;
4) birthright per Minor v. Happersett (plural parents);
5) end work visas;
6) 10-year moratorium on all new applications for citizenship (40 years to allow workplace automation effects on downsizing population);
7) Set up an illegal aliens’ victim restitution fund.

Enactment of these provisions will motivate illegal aliens to SELF-deport, and remove colonizadors from our welfare rolls.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Look. 1986 didn’t work. It’s like the couples that use the rhythm method. They’re the ones with all the little kids.