Immigration_blueprint.pdf. Administration's 'Silent Raids' Lead to Firings, Not Deportations. FILE: Agents raid a drop house for illegal immigrants in Phoenix in April. (AP) The Obama administration's new approach to dealing with companies that hire illegal immigrants results in firings, not deportations, Fox News has confirmed. Instead of immigration sweeps at factories and farms which used to lead to illegal workers being shipped out of the country, the administration’s new policy—government conducted audits labeled “silent raids” by employers—usually only result in the workers losing their jobs. News of the policy change, which was first reported by The New York Times on Friday, comes just over a week after the president delivered his highly anticipated speech on immigration reform, which was criticized on both ends of the political spectrum.
Since Obama took office, the Department of Homeland Security has audited more than 2,785 employers suspected of hiring illegal laborers, compared to 500 audits in all of 2008, according to Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the U.S. Media | North Carolina Growers Association. July 26, 2012 N.C. wary of possible farm labor shortage Migrant laborers top tobacco plants on a farm near Vass on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. Working for farmer Tony Ross, they are here on temporary H-2A visas. The program is meant to help agricultural employers, who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers, bring foreign workers to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature February 24, 2012 Vass, NC – The North Carolina Growers Association (NCGA), along with Immigration Works USA sponsored a forum entitled “Making the Best of a Broken System”.
A nationally representative group of key stakeholders from Arizona to New England to Florida were in attendance to discuss the H-2A guest worker program and its role as an agricultural labor solution. November 22, 2011Digtriad.com & WFMY-News2North Carolina is the Sweet Potato State May 24, 2007TIME Magazine Nathan Thornburgh Read more here. Crackdown on American Apparel Workers Another Wasted Effort - AlterNet.org - Press Article. Crackdown on American Apparel Workers Another Wasted Effort The impact our broken system is having on those businesses who want to do the right thing is untold.
AlterNet.org Benjamin Johnson October 6, 2009 This week, American Apparel is slated to lay off 1,800 workers from its clothing factory in Los Angeles. The impending layoffs are the result of a federal investigation which turned up irregularities in the documents workers presented when first hired by the company. While DHS's new focus on worksite enforcement is without the brutality of guns or dogs, the imminent firing of these workers--many of whom joined American Apparel years ago when the economy was robust and jobs were plentiful--is no cause for celebration. The problems employers face typically receive little attention.
Obviously, American Apparel is no mom and pop clothing maker. The problem for employers, big and small, is that abiding by our immigration laws is far too difficult. Crackdown on American Apparel Workers Another Wasted Effort. This week, American Apparel is slated to lay off 1,800 workers from its clothing factory in Los Angeles. The impending layoffs are the result of a federal investigation which turned up irregularities in the documents workers presented when first hired by the company. The investigation itself represents a new direction in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration enforcement, one which focuses on audits of employment records rather than mass roundups and S.W.A.T. -team raids—raids which inflicted abuse and trauma on immigrants, their families and our communities. While DHS’s new focus on worksite enforcement is without the brutality of guns or dogs, the imminent firing of these workers—many of whom joined American Apparel years ago when the economy was robust and jobs were plentiful—is no cause for celebration.
The problems employers face typically receive little attention. Obviously, American Apparel is no mom and pop clothing maker. Deportations Under Obama vs. Bush: Who Deported More Immigrants? | The New Republic. If you don’t follow the immigration debate closely, you may be a bit confused. The left is increasingly angry with President Obama, calling him the “deporter-in-chief.” That’s because the total number of deportations during Obama’s tenure recently passed 2 million. As Dara Lind wrote last week at Vox, that pace puts him on track to “have deported more people by the end of 2014 than George W. Bush did in his entire eight years.” Immigration groups like America’s Voice and publications like Mother Jones have made the same point.
The right is mad at Obama, too—but for the opposite reason. How is it possible that the two sides could look at the same data and see such different things? Under Bush, the majority of immigrants that the U.S. sent home were simply “returned.” But in the second half of the Bush administration, DHS decided to up the number of “removals” and limit the number of “returns.” Obama Illegal Immigration Silent Work Raid Policy Not Working.
Last week in The Wall Street Journal, Miriam Jordan writes that “Fresh Raids Target Illegal Hiring.” While a quick glance would leave readers with the impression that President Obama’s illegal immigration work raid policy is working, the problems with the policy sneak into the article in two places. First, Jordan notes: “While the audits don’t lead to the deportation of a firm’s illegal workers, they all lose their jobs.” As we’ve previously written (here, here, and here), failing to deport illegal immigrants apprehended during a work raid undermines any effort to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the United States and ultimately results in those illegal immigrants simply finding another job in the same city or in a different city.
This approach just kicks the can down the road. It also leads to the second problem: “Attorneys who advise audited companies report that some employers are being subjected to a second audit. Obama & Illegal Immigration. Why Immigrant Amnesty is the Best Solution to Border Security Issues - Border Security Issues and Immigrant Amnesty. It is clear that large-scale, long-term undocumented migration will pose a long-term threat to national security interests if left unchecked.
It is also clear that the U.S. government is entirely to blame for the fact that there are 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country now, and should not punish the immigrants for doing what the government and corporations have encouraged them to do. So we need to secure the border, yes. We need to crack down on corporations that exploit undocumented workers, yes. But there is a more significant issue at stake here: The fate of the 12 million human beings who now live in this country, who have done nothing that our politicians and their corporate backers have not encouraged them to do for decades.
It would be brutally unfair--not to mention impractical--to deport them all, and if we're not going to deport them, the only way we will end the cycle of migrant worker exploitation is by granting them citizenship. Rights of illegal immigrants protected in workplace - The Progress Report. Rights of ‘Illegal’ Immigrants Protected in Workplace Publisher’s note — if you cross a border, have you abandoned all your civil rights? Can an illegal immigrant be a human yet have no human rights? In a recent article in the Arizona Republic, Andrew Buchanan reported on a recent step forward in government’s understanding of human rights.
Here are some excerpts. Illegal immigrants, long with little recourse against workplace discrimination or harassment, will no longer have abuse claims hampered by a lack of citizenship, federal officials say. “If you violate civil rights laws and you discriminate against undocumented workers, we will apply the full force of the law,” Ida Castro, chairwoman of the U.S. Under the new rule, illegal workers could get back pay, be reinstated to their jobs if they were unfairly fired and ask the courts to force the employers to pay damages and attorney’s fees if discrimination is proved. Anti-freedom of immigration groups opposed the rule. Staff More Posts. Immigration raids - tips for avoiding corporate liability. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) issues a press release announcing another worksite immigration raid.
ICE has dramatically changed its enforcement of the immigration laws. Rather than relying on the traditional use of administrative fines for I-9 violations, ICE is bringing criminal charges against employers and seizing their “illegally derived” assets. Last fiscal year, this new approach resulted in 863 criminal arrests and over 4,000 administrative workplace arrests. As recently as July 21, 2008, two top executives for a McDonald’s franchisee that owns 11 McDonald’s restaurants and the corporation itself pleaded guilty to federal felony immigration offenses, and agreed to pay a fine of $1 million. What triggers a government investigation into your worksite?
Fortunately, guidelines exist to help employers avoid both prosecution and severe sanctions. What are the key elements to include in a corporate immigration compliance policy? Targeting employers: workplace enforcement and the culture of compliance. Promises and the Culture of Compliance As we all begin to move away from the new Administration’s honeymoon period, news of ongoing worksite investigations, criminal indictments and heavy-handed convictions of managers and executives is an indication that Immigration related compliance will continue to be a hot topic for the remainder of the President’s term.
Speculation of dramatic changes to the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would function under the new Administration in its enforcement efforts of immigration laws are quickly dissipating. The Obama Administration continues to hold employers accountable through administrative audits, as well extensive investigations and prosecutions for the employment of undocumented workers. “[B]usinesses must be held accountable if they break the law by deliberately hiring and exploiting undocumented workers. We’ve already begun to step up enforcement against the worst workplace offenders . . . . Where are we headed? Legalize LA | Immigration Reform Now!
Early-stage, high-growth firms have been shown to create the bulk of new jobs in the United States. But who creates all those companies that create all those jobs? Evidently, immigrants play an enormous role. Nearly half of the top 50 venture-backed firms in the country were founded at least in part by an immigrant, according to a new study ' by The National Foundation for American Policy. Expanded to include key management personnel, the portion of the top young companies headed by foreign individuals hikes up to 74 percent.
"It's a gamble whether an entrepreneur should stay or leave right now, and that's not how the immigration system should work," Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, said in a statement. "What we need is legislation that helps these entrepreneurs from outside the United States. " Read More "Mostly we cry," she says. Read More Legalize LA 2010 Read More.