|
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced a
new interior enforcement strategy that the agency is touting as the
second phase of its Secure Border Initiative (SBI). According to ICE's
Apr. 20, 2006, announcement, the SBI is a multi-year plan intended to
"secure America's borders and reduce unlawful migration" into the United
States (see the
ICE news release).
The new interior enforcement strategy has
three stated goals. The first is to identify and remove from the U.S.
individuals who fall into the following categories: "criminal aliens"
(foreign-born non-U.S. citizens with criminal convictions) once they
have served their criminal sentences; individuals with final orders of
deportation or removal; persons who have overstayed their visas; and
individuals who pose national security threats. The strategy's second
goal is to increase and strengthen worksite enforcement in order to
deter the unlawful employment of undocumented workers. And its third
goal is, by targeting human smugglers and traffickers, to "uproot the
criminal infrastructure" that supports unlawful immigration, and also to
deter document fraud.
ICE's proposed "new" worksite enforcement
strategy is to punish employers who knowingly or recklessly hire
undocumented workers by bringing criminal charges against those
employers and seizing their assets. This strategy, however, is not
particularly new. Since the Immigration Reform and Control Act became
law in 1986, first the Immigration and Naturalization Service and now
its successor, ICE, have had the authority to bring criminal charges
against employers who violate immigration law by hiring undocumented
workers.
ICE is also seeking the enactment of
legislation that would provide the agency access to the Social Security
Administration's (SSA's) database and the authority to investigate
incidences of Social Security numbers (SSNs) in the SSA's records not
correctly matching the names of the wage-earners who are using them, as
well as incidences of "all zero" SSN registrations, which occur when
workers' earnings are reported to the SSA under nine zeros (i.e.,
000-00-0000).
To highlight its worksite enforcement
strategy, ICE also announced on Apr. 20 the results of a nationwide
worksite enforcement investigation targeting IFCO Systems North America,
Inc., the largest wooden pallet services company in the U.S. Under
criminal complaints issued against the company, ICE arrested several
IFCO managers for conspiring to transport and harbor undocumented
immigrants, and to encourage and induce them to reside in the U.S., for
the company's commercial advantage and financial gain. As part of the IFCO operation, ICE also arrested approximately 1,187 undocumented IFCO
employees. According to the criminal complaints, 53.4 percent of the
IFCO workers' SSNs were either invalid, did not match SSA records, or
belonged to children or deceased persons; and SSA had sent IFCO
approximately 13 written notices of such discrepancies in 2004 and
2005. (The ICE news release that describes the IFCO operation is
available
here.)
ICE's
announcement of its new worksite enforcement strategy came as the U.S.
Senate was taking up comprehensive immigration reform legislation and
hundreds of thousands of immigrants were taking to the streets all
across the country to demonstrate for just and fair immigration reform.
Since ICE's announcement, immigrant rights advocates have fielded an
unprecedented number of calls from religious organizations, public
schools, small business owners in immigrant communities, labor unions,
and other workers' advocates, all expressing concern about the agency's
enforcement activities. Advocates have reported that immigrant families
are afraid to send their children to school, shop at local businesses,
and conduct daily activities. Even school administrators have voiced
concern that ICE may conduct enforcement operations at their
institutions. While ICE has reportedly denied that it selectively
patrols immigrant communities, confirmed reports of immigration arrests
within the country's interior and ICE's attempts even to detain
school-aged children at school seem to validate many of these concerns.
(See "Foreign Nationals Arrested in Valley: 51 Illegal Immigrants
Had Ignored Orders to Leave the United States," The Fresno Bee,
Apr. 20, 2006; see also "Schools Refuse to Surrender Kids for
Deportation," San Francisco Sentinel, May 9, 2006.)
The perceived
increase in worksite enforcement may also lead unscrupulous employers to
engage in unlawful practices, such as unwarranted reverification of work
authorization documents, using "no match" notices received from the SSA
as a pretext to fire workers, conducting their own audits of employees'
SSNs, or discriminating against workers who appear to be foreign-born by
refusing to hire them. It is important for immigrant rights advocates
to continue educating workers about their workplace rights in the event
that they are retaliated or discriminated against by their employers.
It is equally important for immigrant rights advocates to educate
immigrants about their rights with respect to immigration enforcement.
--By
Monica Guizar,
NILC
employment policy attorney
|
