Immigration Agents to Turn Focus to Employers

[pampango]

Source: NY Times

"Under guidelines to be issued Thursday to Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices, agents will be instructed to take aim at employers and supervisors for prosecution “through the use of carefully planned criminal investigations.”"

" Under the Bush administration , the officials said, most raids were conducted largely on the basis of tips that an employer was hiring illegal workers, rather than on information gleaned from audits of employer records or undercover investigations. As a result, agents rounded up thousands of illegal immigrants but rarely developed the evidence necessary to show whether businesses were knowingly using illegal labor ."

"“Enforcement efforts focused on employers better target the root causes of illegal immigration,” say the guidelines, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “ICE must prioritize the criminal prosecution of actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers because such employers are not sufficiently punished or deterred by the arrest of their illegal work force.”"

"The guidelines are a significant step toward President Obama’s pledge to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. The president’s aides said recently that he would ask Congress this year to consider changes that among other things would give legal status to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now in the country ."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/us/politics/30immig.html?hp

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President Obama knows that the first step to comprehensive immigration reform is to greatly improve current enforcement which will help satisfy the "enforcement only" and "just build a higher wall" types and deal with the fear that another wave of illegal immigrants will take the place of the ones here now. Prioritizing the criminal prosecution of actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers is the best way to target the root causes of illegal immigration.

Then he can go on to a public discussion of immigration reform and possible legislation later on.