Help Wanted From Illegal Aliens Could Prove Costly
Monday, October 30, 2006SUSIE GHARIB: Border enforcement is a hot-button issue for many voters in the upcoming election, so the Bush administration has been eager to show it is getting tougher both at the border and beyond. Today, the Department of Homeland Security released its report card of the results, and the nation's businesses are paying attention. Washington bureau chief Darren Gersh reports.
DARREN GERSH, NBR CORRESPONDENT: Promising to deliver what he calls vigorous internal enforcement, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff says his department is now going after employers who flout the law against hiring illegal immigrants.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The message that we are sending to the community of people who build their business based upon hiring illegal migrants is, if we catch you, you're not just going to get a parking ticket, or an administrative fine of a couple of hundred bucks; you might wind up going to jail.
GERSH: After 9/11, criminal arrests against employers plunged to just 25 in fiscal year 2002 as immigration agents focused on industries that might be targets for terrorists. But Chertoff says the cops are back on the beat. For the fiscal year ended September 30th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 716 employers and employees on criminal charges. Immigrations analysts say it's a start, but some want to see more.
STEVEN CAMAROTA, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: The Bush administration in general, even before September 11th, always viewed -- and this comes from the president himself -- always viewed enforcement as kind of morally dubious.
GERSH: Doris Meissner headed the Immigration and Naturalization Service before it was folded into the Department of Homeland Security. She says immigration employment laws are weak, and that means criminal cases against employers are difficult to prosecute without an inside witness. Meissner says most cases end with an acquittal.
DORIS MEISSNER, SR. FELLOW, MIGRATION POLICY INST.: All the law requires is that they ask an employee to show them a document, and they then fill out a form that says I looked at these several documents. There's no requirement to check whether those documents are good documents or not.
GERSH: Even so, the new get-tough attitude on immigration violations has employers worried, even though their odds of being prosecuted and convicted are still remote.
Darren Gersh, "Nightly Business Report," Washington.
