"Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A):
A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:
assists an illegal alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or
encourages that illegal alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions."
If an immigration officer believes you should have known that the person you hired was illegal he can arrest you. If the judge and jury agree, you will be fined or sent to jail.
the thing is - the Feds don't go after the employers. What's the point of having the laws if we aren't going to enforce them?
Working in the field I know so many mom and pop businesses who have hired illegals as dishwashers, janitors, etc. The only way to get to these people is to have a hotline that you can call, knowing damn good and well that someone undercover will be out to that place of business within an hour and arrest the illegals. The mom and pop's, unfortunately, need to be fined enough to not do it again, and if they are put out of business, too bad. They committed a crime. These businesses KNOW that these workers are illegal. That's why they pay them under the table and hook them up with good American citizens who'll marry and sponsor them.
Most businesses do check and all that is required of them is to make the best assessment possible that the docs given are real. But in many, many cases, no docs are given.
We need attorneys in on this. At least to clear out the inital 12 million illegals in this country right now. I guarantee you if we made it mandatory for attorneys to hand over the names of all individuals who have come into this country illegally - we could deport almost 3/4 of the ones who had not married a U.S. citizen or claimed amnesty. We know where the other 25% is - in jail.
Sounds perfect to me. Now, when do they start inforcing it?
Well this is great, and I really do not disagree with it, but think for a moment; not only do I need to know the labor laws, the pesticide and herbicide regulation, trucknig regs, tax regs, zoning regs, fish and game regs, I could go on and on, but I need to read the immigration laws too?
Trust me, I do my best. They need to have their papers in order to be employed.