Immigration raids target businesses in Nebraska, Minnesota

42,838.

A senior Homeland Security official attributed the decrease in apprehensions in part to the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration policies at the border. But the official agreed with advocates and experts that the numbers also reflect seasonal flows of border crossings; individuals are more likely to travel in milder weather than during the often dangerous heat of summer.

An estimated 4,357 unaccompanied children showed up at the border in July, the data show, compared to 5,562 in a month earlier. Meanwhile, 12,285 people traveling in family groups were denied entry to the United States last month, compared to 12,386 family members in June.

The two consecut ive months of fewer migrants followed a flood of people in the spring who illegally crossed the Southwest border into the United States. More than 50,000 migrants were arrested after enter- ing the country from Mexico each month from March to May.

But in 2017, illegal border crossings dropped to a more than 40-year low, a decrease largely attributed to Trump’s election. The springtime rise in people attempting to enter the United States was a source of frustration for the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Tony Payan, director of the Mexico Center at Rice University’s Baker Insti- tute for Public Policy, said he expects the number of migrants to rise as weather conditions improve.

“These are people fleeing harsh economic conditions and violence,” Payan said. “They are going to keep coming no matter what the enforcement policies are at the border.”

In April, the administration announced a zero-tolerance policy to prosecute all immigrants who illegally entered the United States. But by early July, facing an international outcry, offi- cials backed off the policy after it resulted in detaining thousands of adults and separating them from their children.

By the end of the month, the federal government had reunited more than 1,800 migrant families who had been separated. But about 711 children were not reunited with parents who were, for various reasons, deemed ineligible. That figure included more than 460 adults, most of whom are believed to have been deported without their chil- dren.

A large federal law enforcement oper- ation conducted Wednesday targeted businesses in Nebraska and Minnesota that officials say knowingly hired and mistreated immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

The investigative arm of U.S. Immigrations and Cus- toms Enforcement — Home- land Security Investigations — led the operation that saw about a dozen businesses and plants raided and the arrests of 14 business owners and managers and more than 130 workers.

Most of the arrests occurred in northe rn Nebraska and southern Minnesota. Several of the businesses were in O’Neill, Nebraska, a town of about 3,000 about 160 miles northwest of Omaha. Officials said they were still looking to take three owners or managers into custody as part of the operation.

Special agent in charge Tracy Cormier described the operation as one of the largest in Homeland Secu- rity Investigations’ 15-year history.

“I would say the amount of criminal warrants that are being executed will be one of the largest for HSI,” she said. “I’m not aware of a bigger one.”

Between 350 and 400 federal, state and local law enforcement officers worked together on the arrests, she said.

The focus of the operation is unusual in that it targeted business operators for arrest. Most immigration raids have targeted work- ers suspected of being in the country illegally.

“The whole inve stigation was initiated, basically, because we knew that these businesses were cheating these workers and cheating taxpayers and cheating their competition,” Cormier said.

The businesses engaged in a scheme that used fraudulent names and Social Security numbers to employ people in the country illegally, she said. The businesses used “force, fraud, coercion, threat of arrest and/or deportation” to exploit the workers, Cormier said. The business that hired out the immigrants also forced the workers to cash their paychecks with that business for an exorbitant fee, officials said, and withheld taxes from workers’ pay without paying those taxes to the government.

“It kind of reminds us of the revival of the old ‘company store’ policy, where it used to keep the coal miners indebted to the company for all kinds of services ... like check cashing,” she said.

Dozens of workers suspected of being in the country illegally also were arreste d, Co r mier s aid. Some will be issued notices to appear before an immigration judge and released, while those with criminal backgrounds will remain in ICE custody.

The raids come as President Donald Trump’s administration has been carrying out high-profile enforcement actions against employers who hire illegal labor.

Dozens of workers were arrested at a meatpacking plant in rural Tennessee in April, followed by agents rounding up more than 100 employees two months later at an Ohio gardening and landscaping company.