Sat January 5, 2008

Employers may pay price for not embracing changes

By Devona Walker
Staff Writer

The Department of Homeland Security significantly stepped up immigration enforcement efforts in 2007.

But illegal immigration opponents say it must do a better job of targeting the lure of illegal immigration: The availability of work.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement made nearly four times as many workplace arrests as it did in 2006. Of those 4,900 arrests, 864 people were charged with a crime, more than 500 of which involved document fraud and identity theft in an attempt to appear to be legal residents.

The number of employers or managers arrested for hiring illegal immigrants was fewer than 100, however.

"When you have more than 500,000 illegals entering this country every year, you are not going to cut off the incentive until you start drying up employment. Employment is the No. 1 reason illegal immigrants come here,” said Bryan Griffith, spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, which is opposed to illegal immigration. "You can have as much border enforcement or random arresting of illegal immigrants as you want. But if you are able to cut off that incentive, they will most likely self-deport or not enter at all.”

Worksite enforcement

The federal immigration agency also ramped up other enforcement teams. For instance, Fugitive Operations Teams — which focus on finding illegal immigrants who already have been asked to leave the country, have criminal convictions in other countries or are fugitives — arrested more than 30,000 illegal immigrants nationally, doubling its 2006 numbers.

In north Texas and Oklahoma, those teams arrested 1,600, which also doubled 2006 numbers. Of those arrested, 699 were fugitives and 168 were illegal immigrants with criminal convictions. Nearly 1,100 of those arrested in Oklahoma and north Texas have been deported to their countries of origin.

A raid in Oklahoma City in early September, involving the federal program Operation Community Shield with cooperation of state and local officials, netted 65 alleged immigrant gang members.

However, workplace raids targeting employers present an additional burden on the immigration agency. Experts say it is easier to round up illegal immigrants in the workplace than it is to prove that employers knowingly hired illegal immigrants. Workplace arrests are made at a ratio of about 50 employees to one employer.

Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research group, says arresting employers is more difficult and time consuming, but the government must improve this ratio to change behavior.

"They want to change the calculations that employers make. If the risk is too small, they will behave exactly the way they've been behaving,” Papademetriou said.

Experts say both sides of the immigration debate estimate at least a million companies employ more than 7 million unauthorized workers. Only 17 companies faced criminal fines or other forfeitures this year.

"It's easy to arrest and remove illegal resident persons. It's very difficult to try to have conspiracy and other charges thrown at employers. The law as it is written protects employers,” Papademetriou said. "Employers are not required to find out if the documents are legal, but whether on their face they look legal.”

Experts say the Department of Homeland Security's most effective worksite enforcement tool is still being litigated in court. The proposal is for no-match letters to go out to employers with workers whose names do not match their Social Security numbers. Employers would have 90 days to fix the discrepancy or terminate the worker.

"These no-match letters would be such a critical tool in the arsenal for immigration enforcement,” Papademetriou said.

‘Could have done more'

Papademetriou thinks employers, for political and ideological reasons, will stay on the government's radar.

"This administration is trying to reclaim credibility in terms of immigration enforcement,” Papademetriou said. "The business community was a very, very weak actor during the attempt to pass immigration reform. They could have done more. Now, it is time for employers to pay the price for not helping with immigration reform.”

Low employer arrest numbers also show the need to make programs like E-Verify mandatory, said Center for Immigration Studies senior policy analyst Jessica Vaughan.

"What it shows too is how difficult it is to prove employers are knowingly hiring illegal immigrants,” Vaughan said. "This is one great argument for mandatory participation in E-Verify.”

E-Verify is a free, Internet-based system that provides an automated link to federal databases to help employers determine employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers. It is currently mandatory only in Arizona.

"Workplace enforcement efforts are important,” Vaughan said. "But I don't think it takes criminal charges to send that message home.”

Some local employers are obviously already feeling the pain. A few years ago, Sulphur saddle maker Billy Cook lost his entire staff to an immigration raid, about 51 employees.

Dozens of federal agents came, seized company documents, confiscated computers and took his employees into custody. Cook pleaded guilty to conspiracy and faces up to 25 years in prison and $150,000 in fines.

Authorities allege from 2000 through 2005, Cook supplied false data to the Social Security Administration on his workers.

‘Only people willing to work'

Other small-business owners have escaped the long arm of immigration enforcement. But often say they have no idea if all their workers are authorized.

"People don't want to work anymore. They want to collect the check, but they don't want to work for it,” said Bill Paul, who owns a small oil company in between Stratford and Pauls Valley.

"The country pretty much opens the borders to the only people willing to work, then they tell me it's illegal for me to hire them. I've been having a real hard time getting my head around the whole thing.”

Immigration agency officials say it is in the midst of reinventing itself and giving Americans a reason to believe they are serious about enforcing immigration laws.

"Make a quick reference between the old INS and ICE. ICE has significantly more teeth,” said Carl Rusnok, regional spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Under the old INS, employers were essentially fined for hiring unauthorized workers. It was considered the cost of doing business, Rusnok said.

"A significant difference in the way the old INS worked and the way ICE works is that we don't just go after illegal aliens but the employers who knowingly hire them,” Rusnok said. "It's one thing to have a fine. It's quite another thing to know you are going to jail.”

As part of ramped-up enforcement, it has launched 13 programs under the umbrella ICE ACCESS, involving increased cooperation with local law enforcement agencies. This includes the 287(g) Program cross-training local law agencies to enforce immigration law. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Department participates in this program.