Immigration raids target employees over employers
Worker arrests by ICE increase 812 percent
The Trump administration ramped up arrests at businesses suspected of employing undocumented immigrants in 2018, but data obtained by USA TODAY show that federal agents did so by mostly targeting those working illegally and not their employers.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was ordered to quadruple worksite enforcement this year, and it did just that. In fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30, ICE set 10-year highs for the number of worksite audits conducted (5,981) and criminal charges filed (779).
ICE leadership claimed its crackdown is focused on employers and employees equally as part of a balanced
approach to worksite enforcement, but the data show that the arrest rate of workers skyrocketed.
The 113 members of management charged with criminal violations in 2018 was an 82 percent increase from the previous year, but the 666 workers charged with criminal violations increased by 812 percent. The number of “administrative arrests” – those for basic immigration violations that are predominantly used against workers – spiked from 172 in 2017 to 1,525 in 2018. The 121 federal indictments and convictions of managers in 2018 represented a
10-year low for the agency.
Greg Nevano, who oversees worksite enforcement for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations office, said those numbers do not mean employers get a pass. He said it simply takes more time for federal charges to be finalized against employers because their cases are more complex and those numbers will start increasing in 2019 as more indictments are filed.
Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates on behalf of immigrants, said he’s not willing to give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt, given its track record targeting all kinds of immigrants for deportation and the sheer volume of worksite arrests targeting employees over employers.
“When you look at the deployment of prosecutorial resources by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, it’s clear they are more worried about the undocumented housekeeper than they are about the unscrupulous employer,” Noorani said.
Under President George W. Bush, ICE agents focused on large-scale raids that rounded up large numbers of workers. During his second term, ICE arrested an average of 3,511 workers on administrative charges each year, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Under President Barack Obama, the focus shifted to auditing employers. During Bush’s final year, ICE initiated
503 audits of companies to examine the paperwork employees must sign verify- ing their identity and immigration status. During Obama’s first four years, that shot up to more than 2,000 audits a year, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Under Trump, ICE said it would tackle all of the above. During a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation last year, Thomas Homan, who was ICE director at the time, vowed to increase worksite enforcement by “four or five times” by going after both sides of the employment equation.
That strategy played out during a raid of a meatpacking plant in Bean Station, Tennessee, in April. In that case, 97 workers and the owner of the plant, James Brantley, were arrested.
Brantley pleaded guilty to four federal crimes, including knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants. Federal agents seized $107,000 in cash they found that was meant to pay undocumented workers to avoid taxes, he was fined $41,000 by the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration for “serious” violations of worker safety rules, and he could be forced to pay $1.3 million in unpaid taxes during his sentencing hearing in February.
Robert Hammer, who heads Homeland Security Investigations for ICE in Tennessee, said the Bean Station raid originated as a financial one and the immigration violations were “not the overarching goals.”
“While the public’s perception may have been that we solely went in to get (the workers), there was a broader strategy at play here,” Hammer said.
Immigration experts on both sides of the debate have serious doubts about that strategy.
Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a national federation of business owners that advocate for improved guest worker programs, said the increase in worksite enforcement punishes businesses that are trying their best to operate in an outdated immigration system.
She said the administration should spend less time punishing employers who struggle to find enough employees and more time reforming guest worker programs to make it easier for U.S. businesses to maintain a steady, reliable workforce.