ICE focusing on businesses and not illegal aliens

[CosmicCowboy]

ICE launches workplace immigration crackdown


WASHINGTON — The Obama administration launched investigations of hundreds of businesses around the country Wednesday as part of its strategy to focus immigration enforcement on the employers who hire illegal workers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun notifying businesses of plans to audit their I-9 forms — employment eligibility documents that employers fill out for every worker — the agency told members of Congress in an e-mail Wednesday.

Immigration officers served "Notices of Inspection" to 625 businesses, the Homeland Security Department said. By comparison, 503 such notices were issued to businesses last year, the agency said.

Employers are required to keep the I-9 forms and must check the authenticity of documents provided by the employee. The Homeland Security Department said it would not release the names or locations of the businesses that are being audited because of the ongoing investigations.

"ICE is committed to establishing a meaningful I-9 inspection program to promote compliance with the law," John Morton, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, said in a statement. "This nationwide effort is a first step in ICE's longterm strategy to address and deter illegal employment."

President Barack Obama has said his administration's strategy for stemming illegal immigration would focus on employers who hire illegal workers.

The Bush administration was criticized for deploying armed agents to raid businesses and arrest workers suspected to be working illegally. Critics said the Bush administration did not do enough to go after the employers.

The Obama administration has been trying to build its credibility on immigration enforcement to boost the chances of passing an immigration reform bill in Congress. The administration has doubted whether it has enough votes right now to pass immigration reform. But some members of Congress emerged from a meeting with Obama last week saying immigration reform could be done by the end of the year or early next year.

The I-9 audits are certain to cause concern among employers who have complained that identifying illegal workers is fraught with problems, from recognizing fake identity documents made to look authentic to risking violating anti-discrimination laws.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said investigations will focus on businesses that knowingly hire immigrants who cannot legally work in the U.S.

"Employers want the rule of law. They want a level playing field, but it has to be combined with being able to get the workers they need in a legal, reliable way. That's what we are looking for in immigration reform," said Tamar Jacoby, president and CEO of ImmigrationWorks USA, a national group of employers who support immigration reform.

The group wants lawmakers to craft immigration reform legislation that will make it easier for businesses to hire temporary workers.

ImmigrationWorks USA recently lobbied Capitol Hill on immigration reform. A handout distributed to attendees was called, "Don't Wait for ICE to Knock on the Door." It gave tips for preparing for immigration audits and work site investigations.

[Winehole23]

When you go after the workers it hurts the business too. The only other alternative is non-enforcement. I'll go out on a limb and say you would probably be against that too.

IMO cracking down on employers and/or workers is valid from an LE POV. But both strategies are held up by backlog on the immigration docket right now.

As a matter of resources, there's only so much enforcement we can responsibly do, while detaining such a great mass of violators for years before any dispositive hearing.

[Winehole23]

I heard somewhere (PFA guess: Grits For Breakfast) that we already dragooned the federal courts into this mess, and they already cried uncle.

FWD, doobs?

Do you guys know about this?

[Wild Cobra]

When you go after the workers it hurts the business too. The only other alternative is non-enforcement. I'll go out on a limb and say you would probably be against that too.

IMO cracking down on employers and/or workers is valid from an LE POV. But both strategies are held up by backlog on the immigration docket right now.

As a matter of resources, there's only so much enforcement we can responsibly do, while detaining such a great mass of violators for years before any dispositive hearing.
Thing is, when you crack down on employers, you reduce the demand for illegal workers. The idea of this method if they will go back home when they cannot find work. It's called self-deportation. It is cheaper this way than deporting people who just come back anyway.

As for hurting business... Too bad. There are free methods out there for employers to verify the legal status of workers. Employers who don't use this system are either lazy, or would rather have a blind eye to hiring labor at a reduced wage. This makes them more competitive at the cost of those who only hire legal workers. Is that right?

Supply and demand is a natural law. When you have millions of people entering our workforce, the wages go down for the job types affected.

[Winehole23]

I substantially agree with that. Again the practical limit to LE is the already cloggo legal process.

[LnGrrrR]

I feel bad for the children of illegal immigrants. Let's face it, Mexico sucks. If I were in Mexico, I'd probably be willing to risk deportation/arrest/bad stuff to come over here too to provide for my family, so I don't blame them too much.

Still, I'd much rather have THIS method applied than a 'door-to-door' type method applied.

[Wild Cobra]

I feel bad for the children of illegal immigrants. Let's face it, Mexico sucks. If I were in Mexico, I'd probably be willing to risk deportation/arrest/bad stuff to come over here too to provide for my family, so I don't blame them too much.

Still, I'd much rather have THIS method applied than a 'door-to-door' type method applied.
I don't blame them either. However, we do need to keep immigration controlled to keep from being overwhelmed. I say make it impossible for illegal immigrants to find work, and they wont come. At the same time, increase legal immigration substantially.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

i actually agree with that he's doing here. go after the businesses. the hell with them. it's called illegal immigrant for a reason. illegals should work on becoming legal, legally. problem solved.

i guess my hackery is wearing off

[LnGrrrR]

I don't blame them either. However, we do need to keep immigration controlled to keep from being overwhelmed. I say make it impossible for illegal immigrants to find work, and they wont come. At the same time, increase legal immigration substantially.

:tu

[Wild Cobra]

i actually agree with that he's doing here. go after the businesses. the hell with them. it's called illegal immigrant for a reason. illegals should work on becoming legal, legally. problem solved.

i guess my hackery is wearing off
I agree this is a right step. I wonder how long it will really last, or if it's just more hot air.

[CosmicCowboy]

Plus, with unemployment at 10% the Feds can make some headlines and fine, jail, and generally demonize "evil" businessmen.

[Wild Cobra]

Plus, with unemployment at 10% the Feds can make some headlines and fine, jail, and generally demonize "evil" businessmen.
Yep. The unemployed citizens right now don't like the fact that their job skills might be one that might be in competition with illegal workers.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

I agree this is a right step. I wonder how long it will really hast, or if it's just more hot air.
we should've been doing this a lonnnnnng time ago. i can see them pushing this for a while. if they continue to toot their horn over cap and trade, the stimulus, global warming, etc then they can sure as hell believe in this, but...................

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Plus, with unemployment at 10% the Feds can make some headlines and fine, jail, and generally demonize "evil" businessmen.
everyone needs a little grounding.

[Winehole23]

I say make it impossible for illegal immigrants to find work, and they wont come.A bad idea IMO, but I live in Texas. I'd miss em. I think most of Texas would.

Once, I was a boy proud to live between two unfortified borders. No more.

There's still a lot of exchange between Texas and Mexico for good and for ill. I appreciate the real culture, the real manners and the real hard work. And the real family values. Compadrazgo is no joke, like it is here.

Or RC values, for that matter.

For the record, I'm against the elimination of the free movement of trade and labor across the border.

Cut down on it some? Why not? Even though it's mildly anti-business, it pleases a silent but significant minority of otherwise solidly conservative middle-brow bigots and xenophobes who join a timorous *pro-security*, anti-business left in the political consensus authorizing LE crackdowns on employers, or mass deportations of brown people.

Ick.

[Wild Cobra]

WH, what is wrong with not allowing illegal activity? Can't legal immigration suit the needs?

[Winehole23]

In Texas? I would say no. Finger in the wind, right?

[Winehole23]

It connotes mistrust and disrespect. It's un-neighborly. It's also contrary to the custom.

Elimination is not the way to go IMO.

[baseline bum]

Plus, with unemployment at 10% the Feds can make some headlines and fine, jail, and generally demonize "evil" businessmen.

Wouldn't you consider businessmen that screw American citizens over by hiring illegals evil and worth being demonized?

[Wild Cobra]

Wouldn't you consider businessmen that screw American citizens over by hiring illegals evil and worth being demonized?

I think that was his point, and at the same time, they can make points with the public.

[CosmicCowboy]

There are a lot of jobs that simply wouldn't get done if employers depended on hiring locals. Picking strawberries is one of them. Don't try to tell me that "if they paid enough" they could get someone to do it...maybe they could, but then they couldn't sell their strawberries for enough to break even...

[Wild Cobra]

There are a lot of jobs that simply wouldn't get done if employers depended on hiring locals. Picking strawberries is one of them. Don't try to tell me that "if they paid enough" they could get someone to do it...maybe they could, but then they couldn't sell their strawberries for enough to break even...
That's not true. They used to do it in Oregon long ago, before they made welfare pay so well.

Besides, how can you make that blanket statement without actually calculating the costs.

Key is, you offer these jobs to welfare recipients that are able to work. If they refuse, they don't get welfare, or partial welfare.

[Winehole23]

Key is, you offer these jobs to welfare recipients that are able to work. If they refuse, they don't get welfare, or partial welfare.Welfare entails agricultural peonage to assure the full benefit...

...please tell me more, Profe, before I die laughing. That's feudalism by proxy.

:rollin

[Wild Cobra]

Welfare entails agricultural peonage to assure the full benefit...

...please tell me more, Profe, before I die laughing. That's feudalism by proxy.

:rollin
That was one of many examples. Point is, we shouldn't pay people to sit on their asses. If people are not willing to work the jobs available, then fuck them. They don't need assistance from the taxes I pay.

[Winehole23]

That was one of many examples. What please, are the others? I can't wait to hear...

[boutons_deux]

"If people are not willing to work the jobs available"

I hear that there are 5 job seekers for every 1 job available. The other 4 can rot under cardboard on the street.

[gtownspur]

boutons part deuce part corn.

[ElNono]

U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: July 2, 2009

Immigration authorities had bad news this week for American Apparel, the T-shirt maker based in downtown Los Angeles: About 1,800 of its employees appeared to be illegal immigrants not authorized to work in the United States.

But in contrast to the high-profile raids that marked the enforcement approach of the Bush administration, no federal agents with criminal warrants stormed the company’s factories and rounded up employees. Instead, the federal immigration agency sent American Apparel a written notice that it faced civil fines and would have to fire any workers confirmed to be unauthorized.

The treatment of American Apparel, which has more than 5,600 factory employees in Los Angeles alone, is the most prominent demonstration of a new strategy by the Obama administration to curb the employment of illegal immigrants by focusing on employers who hire them — and doing so in a less confrontational manner than in years past.

Unlike the approach of the Bush administration, which brought criminal charges in its final two years against many illegal immigrant workers, the new effort makes broader use of fines and other civil sanctions, federal officials said Thursday.

Federal agents will concentrate on businesses employing large numbers of workers suspected of being illegal immigrants, the officials said, and will reserve tough criminal charges mostly for employers who serially hire illegal immigrants and engage in wage and labor violations.

“These actions underscore our commitment to targeting employers that cultivate illegal work forces by knowingly hiring and exploiting illegal workers,” said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE, said it had sent notices announcing audits of hiring records, like the one it conducted at American Apparel, to 652 other companies across the country. Officials said they were picking up the pace of such audits, after performing 503 of them in 2008.

The names of other companies that received notices have not been made public. American Apparel became a window into the new enforcement tactics because, as a publicly traded company, it issued a required notice on Wednesday about the hiring audit.

The Obama administration’s new approach, unveiled in April, seems to be moving away from the raids that advocates for immigrants said had split families, disrupted businesses and traumatized communities. But the outcome will still be difficult for illegal workers, who will lose their jobs and could face deportation, the advocates said.

Immigration officials have not made clear how they intend to deal with workers who are unable to prove their legal immigration status in the course of inspections, but they said there was no moratorium on deportations.

Executives at American Apparel were both relieved and dismayed after receiving the warning from the immigration agency of discrepancies in the hiring documents of about one-third of its Los Angeles work force. The company has 30 days to dispute the agency’s claims and give immigrant employees time to prove that they are authorized to work in the United States, immigration officials said. If they cannot, the company must fire them, probably within two months.

But no criminal charges were lodged against the company and no workers have been arrested, American Apparel executives and immigration officials said.

The fines followed discussions over 18 months between federal officials and American Apparel, after immigration agents first inspected the company’s files in January 2008, said Peter Schey, an immigration lawyer representing the company. Mr. Schey said a raid had been averted because the company cooperated with the audit and because immigration agents had not found any labor abuses.

“There is no evidence of any exploitation of workers or violation of labor laws,” he said. “And there is not a single allegation that the company knowingly hired an undocumented worker.”

American Apparel and its outspoken chief executive, Dov Charney, have waged a campaign, emblazoned on T-shirts sold across the country, criticizing the immigration crackdown of recent years and calling on Congress to “Legalize L.A.” by granting legal status to illegal immigrants.

Most garment workers in American Apparel’s huge shop in Los Angeles work directly for the company, not for subcontractors, its records show. They earn at least $10 to $12 an hour, well above minimum wage, and receive health benefits.

At a news conference last year, Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles publicly lauded Mr. Charney for helping the city with its faltering economy by providing “the dream of a steady paycheck and good benefits for countless workers.”

While it has been no secret that American Apparel’s largely Latino work force probably included many illegal immigrants, Mr. Schey said the company had been careful to meet legal hiring requirements. Many illegal immigrants use convincingly forged Social Security cards or other fake documents when seeking work.

In a statement, Mr. Charney said that many of his workers cited by the immigration agency were “responsible, hard-working employees” who had been with the company for more than a decade. Mr. Charney, an immigrant from Canada, said he hoped they would be able to prove their legal status. But because of the recession, the company said, it will not be hurt financially if it has to replace them.

Mr. Schey said the hiring audit at American Apparel had been “professionally done.” By contrast, Mr. Schey has brought more than 100 damage claims against the immigration agency on behalf of American citizens who said they were illegally arrested last year in Los Angeles in an immigration raid at a different company, Micro Solutions Enterprises.

Immigration officials, who asked not to be identified because the case is continuing, said the fines to American Apparel so far were about $150,000.

Kelly A. Nantel, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency, said it had taken steps to limit negotiations with employers that in the past had resulted in steep reductions in fines the employers ultimately paid.

Representative Brian P. Bilbray, a California Republican who heads an immigration caucus in the House, said the amount of the fines was crucial.

“If this is a truly conscientious effort to get tough with employers to say the days are over of profiteering with illegal immigrants, that’s fine,” said Mr. Bilbray, who opposes any effort to give legal status to illegal immigrants. “But if the fine will be so low that it’s just part of doing business, there’s no deterrent.”

Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, an advocacy group, said she welcomed the end to “showboat enforcement raids.” But in the end, Ms. Salas said, “there is still enforcement of laws that are broken,” adding, “The workers will still lose their jobs.”

LINK (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=global-home)

[Viva Las Espuelas]

U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: July 2, 2009

Immigration authorities had bad news this week for American Apparel, the T-shirt maker based in downtown Los Angeles: About 1,800 of its employees appeared to be illegal immigrants not authorized to work in the United States.

But in contrast to the high-profile raids that marked the enforcement approach of the Bush administration, no federal agents with criminal warrants stormed the company’s factories and rounded up employees. Instead, the federal immigration agency sent American Apparel a written notice that it faced civil fines and would have to fire any workers confirmed to be unauthorized.

The treatment of American Apparel, which has more than 5,600 factory employees in Los Angeles alone, is the most prominent demonstration of a new strategy by the Obama administration to curb the employment of illegal immigrants by focusing on employers who hire them — and doing so in a less confrontational manner than in years past.

Unlike the approach of the Bush administration, which brought criminal charges in its final two years against many illegal immigrant workers, the new effort makes broader use of fines and other civil sanctions, federal officials said Thursday.

Federal agents will concentrate on businesses employing large numbers of workers suspected of being illegal immigrants, the officials said, and will reserve tough criminal charges mostly for employers who serially hire illegal immigrants and engage in wage and labor violations.

“These actions underscore our commitment to targeting employers that cultivate illegal work forces by knowingly hiring and exploiting illegal workers,” said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE, said it had sent notices announcing audits of hiring records, like the one it conducted at American Apparel, to 652 other companies across the country. Officials said they were picking up the pace of such audits, after performing 503 of them in 2008.

The names of other companies that received notices have not been made public. American Apparel became a window into the new enforcement tactics because, as a publicly traded company, it issued a required notice on Wednesday about the hiring audit.

The Obama administration’s new approach, unveiled in April, seems to be moving away from the raids that advocates for immigrants said had split families, disrupted businesses and traumatized communities. But the outcome will still be difficult for illegal workers, who will lose their jobs and could face deportation, the advocates said.

Immigration officials have not made clear how they intend to deal with workers who are unable to prove their legal immigration status in the course of inspections, but they said there was no moratorium on deportations.

Executives at American Apparel were both relieved and dismayed after receiving the warning from the immigration agency of discrepancies in the hiring documents of about one-third of its Los Angeles work force. The company has 30 days to dispute the agency’s claims and give immigrant employees time to prove that they are authorized to work in the United States, immigration officials said. If they cannot, the company must fire them, probably within two months.

But no criminal charges were lodged against the company and no workers have been arrested, American Apparel executives and immigration officials said.

The fines followed discussions over 18 months between federal officials and American Apparel, after immigration agents first inspected the company’s files in January 2008, said Peter Schey, an immigration lawyer representing the company. Mr. Schey said a raid had been averted because the company cooperated with the audit and because immigration agents had not found any labor abuses.

“There is no evidence of any exploitation of workers or violation of labor laws,” he said. “And there is not a single allegation that the company knowingly hired an undocumented worker.”

American Apparel and its outspoken chief executive, Dov Charney, have waged a campaign, emblazoned on T-shirts sold across the country, criticizing the immigration crackdown of recent years and calling on Congress to “Legalize L.A.” by granting legal status to illegal immigrants.

Most garment workers in American Apparel’s huge shop in Los Angeles work directly for the company, not for subcontractors, its records show. They earn at least $10 to $12 an hour, well above minimum wage, and receive health benefits.

At a news conference last year, Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles publicly lauded Mr. Charney for helping the city with its faltering economy by providing “the dream of a steady paycheck and good benefits for countless workers.”

While it has been no secret that American Apparel’s largely Latino work force probably included many illegal immigrants, Mr. Schey said the company had been careful to meet legal hiring requirements. Many illegal immigrants use convincingly forged Social Security cards or other fake documents when seeking work.

In a statement, Mr. Charney said that many of his workers cited by the immigration agency were “responsible, hard-working employees” who had been with the company for more than a decade. Mr. Charney, an immigrant from Canada, said he hoped they would be able to prove their legal status. But because of the recession, the company said, it will not be hurt financially if it has to replace them.

Mr. Schey said the hiring audit at American Apparel had been “professionally done.” By contrast, Mr. Schey has brought more than 100 damage claims against the immigration agency on behalf of American citizens who said they were illegally arrested last year in Los Angeles in an immigration raid at a different company, Micro Solutions Enterprises.

Immigration officials, who asked not to be identified because the case is continuing, said the fines to American Apparel so far were about $150,000.

Kelly A. Nantel, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency, said it had taken steps to limit negotiations with employers that in the past had resulted in steep reductions in fines the employers ultimately paid.

Representative Brian P. Bilbray, a California Republican who heads an immigration caucus in the House, said the amount of the fines was crucial.

“If this is a truly conscientious effort to get tough with employers to say the days are over of profiteering with illegal immigrants, that’s fine,” said Mr. Bilbray, who opposes any effort to give legal status to illegal immigrants. “But if the fine will be so low that it’s just part of doing business, there’s no deterrent.”

Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, an advocacy group, said she welcomed the end to “showboat enforcement raids.” But in the end, Ms. Salas said, “there is still enforcement of laws that are broken,” adding, “The workers will still lose their jobs.”

LINK (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=global-home)

this dude's company's website is borderline porno

[Winehole23]

There are a lot of jobs that simply wouldn't get done if employers depended on hiring locals. Picking strawberries is one of them. Don't try to tell me that "if they paid enough" they could get someone to do it...maybe they could, but then they couldn't sell their strawberries for enough to break even...DJT cracking down on employers even harder than Obama, who hit the previous high-water mark:


There were 2,282 employer audits opened between Oct. 1 and May 4, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday, nearly a 60 percent jump from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and September 2017. Many of those reviews were launched following the January ICE audits and employee interviews at about 100 7-Eleven franchises in 17 states.


There were 594 employers arrested on criminal immigration charges from Oct. 1 to May 4, up from 139 during the previous fiscal year, and 610 civil immigration charges during the same period, compared to 172 in the preceding 12-months.
Derek Benner, head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, told The Associated Press that another nationwide wave of audits planned this summer would push the total “well over” 5,000 by Sept 30. ICE audits peaked at 3,127 in 2013.
https://apnews.com/4f6ebb97fd294c898d81737882816f22

[Winehole23]

anti-business immigration policy good now, apparently

[CosmicCowboy]

anti-business immigration policy good now, apparently

The only way they will ever stop illegal immigration, wall or not, is to enforce the use of everify and prosecute employers that dont.

[CosmicCowboy]

The same undocumented immigrants could still do the same jobs, just required to get a time limited work permit by their employers

[CosmicCowboy]

There should even be a path to citizenship after a given amount of time with specified requirements.

[Winehole23]

The only way they will ever stop illegal immigration, wall or not, is to enforce the use of everify and prosecute employers that dont.when Obama was doing it you complained about the hardship to businesses; what a difference a day makes.

[Nathan89]

Good. They are making poor Americans lives worse. Get in line to become legal.

[CosmicCowboy]

when Obama was doing it you complained about the hardship to businesses; what a difference a day makes.

We need a sane immigration system that allows hard working, assimilated people in. Not a pourous border and our current dysfunctional system.

You guys think you are so smart. Propose an immigration solution.

[Winehole23]

I think it makes sense to to have enforcement at the border and in the workplace.

I don't think it's desirable or possible to seal the border, nor do I think it's realistic to expect total prevention of undocumented immigration -- we just have to do the best we can.

[Nathan89]

We aren't doing the best we can.

[CosmicCowboy]

I think it makes sense to to have enforcement at the border and in the workplace.

I don't think it's desirable or possible to seal the border, nor do I think it's realistic to expect total prevention of undocumented immigration -- we just have to do the best we can.
My point was if you make employers part of the solution (through fear of fines, etc) and there was a system for work visas those same undocumented workers could become documented. This would create a data base of workers who deserve assimilation and permanent status of some kind. The existing system is just as stupid as the "war on drugs".

[Winehole23]

that's a reasonable point

[CosmicCowboy]

With birth rates at historical lows, we have to have immigrants.

The goal would be to come up with a system that provided for a high percentage of productive immigrants capable of assimilation and not uneducated, illiterate immigrants with limited oppotunity for success that immediately become burdens on our existing safety nets.

Its a sad fact that a lot of the world are shitholes but we shouldnt be obligated to take in everyone just because it sucks where they are.

[boutons_deux]

We aren't doing the best we can.

evidence?

[Winehole23]

With birth rates at historical lows, we have to have immigrants.so it would seem. there's also the matter of the USA getting older.

how to pay for social services for elderly folks will be a problem. letting more young people immigrate and naturalize is an ostensible solution.

[CosmicCowboy]

so it would seem. there's also the matter of the USA getting older.

how to pay for social services for elderly folks will be a problem. letting more young people immigrate and naturalize is an ostensible solution.

True, but we need a immigration policy that gives workers legal status, identifies them, and gets them in the system. This will never work without cutting off or limiting illegal employment.

[Nathan89]

My point was if you make employers part of the solution (through fear of fines, etc) and there was a system for work visas those same undocumented workers could become documented. This would create a data base of workers who deserve assimilation and permanent status of some kind. The existing system is just as stupid as the "war on drugs".

Actually there are a lot of choke points when dealing with illegals compared to drugs. Employers is one of them. Just not a good comparison.

[Winehole23]

True, but we need a immigration policy that gives workers legal status, identifies them, and gets them in the system. This will never work without cutting off or limiting illegal employment.Not sure how the latter precludes the former. Can you explain how?

[CosmicCowboy]

Actually there are a lot of choke points when dealing with illegals compared to drugs. Employers is one of them. Just not a good comparison.
Its a good analogy. We spend billions trying to stop drugs at the border and criminalize users once the drugs are in. The only difference in immigration is we also criminalize drug dealers, but not employers of illegals.

[CosmicCowboy]

Not sure how the latter precludes the former. Can you explain how?

Hmm. Lets say we have "employment centers" where non citizens can register for work with a resume of skills available. Say an employer goes to the Texas Workforce commision to fill a job requirement. No locals want the job. The employer becomes responsible for the immigrant employee as long as he is registered and works for him. The immigrant could move to another employer as long as he was registered through the new employer. Its a rough outline of how it could work, but if work without documentation wasnt available then undocumented immigration would be limited.

[CosmicCowboy]

I sure dont have all the answers but what we have sucks.

[boutons_deux]

Have any businesses recently SWATted by Trash's SS been punished?

or are the workers the only ones punished?

[CosmicCowboy]

Have any businesses recently SWATted by Trash's SS been punished?

or are the workers the only ones punished?

For once could you not make it blue v red and just agree there is a bipartisan problem that needs a rational solution?

[boutons_deux]

eg

ICE deports Michigan mom of three without letting her say goodbye to her family (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/18/1765300/-ICE-deports-Michigan-mom-of-three-without-letting-her-say-goodbye-to-her-family)

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/18/1765300/-ICE-deports-Michigan-mom-of-three-without-letting-her-say-goodbye-to-her-family?detail=emaildkre

[Nathan89]

That's unfortunate. She should have had time to say goodbye before being sent back to her country.

[boutons_deux]

racist JeBo doing the max to fuck over people

Sessions is using his power to transform 'immigration courts into a deportation assembly line' (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/18/1765275/-Sessions-is-using-his-power-to-turn-immigration-courts-into-a-deportation-assembly-line)

This is, yet again, another reason why Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III continues to put up with abuse and humiliation from Donald Trump (though he’s no victim himself)

and will need to be physically dragged out of the Department of Justice (DOJ) building when his time is up: (https://www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/Sessions-takes-key-authority-away-from-12924039.php)

Sessions barred the nation’s immigration judges Thursday from putting deportation cases on hold,

a practice used in hundreds of thousands of cases of immigrants who needed time to gain legal status or were found to be low priorities for removal.

The procedure known as “administrative closure,”

used by immigration judges since the 1980s,

“lacks a valid legal foundation,”

Sessions said in a decision based on his authority over immigration courts, a branch of his Justice Department.


As if a man who works for Trump gives a shit about the rule of law.

Sessions’ “seemingly innocuous procedural move,” immigration attorney David Leopold notes, (https://twitter.com/DavidLeopold/status/997415856694063104) is

designed to undermine due process and fairness for immigrants, and

even shove immigrants who may have a path to legal status onto a path to deportation.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/18/1765275/-Sessions-is-using-his-power-to-turn-immigration-courts-into-a-deportation-assembly-line?detail=emaildkre (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/18/1765275/-Sessions-is-using-his-power-to-turn-immigration-courts-into-a-deportation-assembly-line?detail=emaildkre)

[CosmicCowboy]

Its a flawed system, Boukaki. Congress should fix the flawed system. Its the job of congress to make the laws, and until congress changes them it is the responsibility of the justice system to enforce the laws that exist.

[Chucho]

That's unfortunate. She should have had time to say goodbye before being sent back to her country.

Or send her kids back with her. They should be given dual citizenship by the fine folks of Mexico. Being drug mules pays as well as their prospective careers would have in the lousy state of Michigan.

[boutons_deux]

Questioning Our Declaration on Human Rights (https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/18/questioning-our-declaration-on-human-rights/)

The four-year-old girl was swept up, along with her mother, into an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas.

Conditions were so unhealthy that the little child lost almost 20 percent of her body weight from vomiting and diarrhea yet

medical care was so inept that the mother was told the girl had bulimia.

Mothers learn not to bother bringing sick children to receive medical care.

Everyone just suffers.

Walter Ewing of the American Immigration Council writes,

“Immigrants in detention suffer from physical abuse,

inadequate food and medical care,

lack of access to legal counsel,

coerced signing of removal documents, and

prolonged (sometimes permanent) separation from U.S.-citizen children.”

they are faced with situations that no human being should ever have to experience—often originating in flight from brutal cartels or corrupt armed forces.

Border Patrol officers have been caught dumping water canteens left in the vast desert stretches by immigration activists and humanitarian organizations.

“Prevention through deterrence” is a tactic used by immigration enforcement officers to “redirect the flow of unauthorized immigrants into ever-more isolated and dangerous terrain with the explicit aim of placing them in “mortal danger.”

The result: 5,287 pointless deaths of border-crossers from 1998 through 2008.”

Immigrants are being rounded up like cattle and given the worst possible detention conditions.

Mothers and their children sleep on the concrete floors of cells with one blanket to share between them.

Men stay huddled together outside in freezing temperatures deprived of food and water.

The conditions they are forced to live in while at these detention facilities are

severe violations of the human rights the United States says they uphold.

Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump have decided to take babies from their mothers’ arms at the border.

Did the US really sign that Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

U.S Customs and Border Protection website, the agency is exists to:

“To safeguard America’s borders thereby protecting the public from dangerous people :lol and materials :lol

while enhancing the Nation’s global economic competitiveness by enabling legitimate trade and travel.” :lol

It is time to see these immigrants as the modern day Pilgrims.

Human beings who are trying to escape a place of zero opportunity to give themselves and the ones they live a better shot at life.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/18/questioning-our-declaration-on-human-rights/ (https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/18/questioning-our-declaration-on-human-rights/)

[boutons_deux]

That's unfortunate. She should have had time to say goodbye before being sent back to her country.

and she was white, too. The Trash/Session SS is color blind.

[Nathan89]

and she was white, too. The Trash/Session SS is color blind.

Illegal is illegal.

[boutons_deux]

Illegal is illegal.

Sadistic inhumanity is sadistic inhumanity

[Nathan89]

Sadistic inhumanity is sadistic inhumanity

Have to look out for the best interest of the country tbh.

[Winehole23]

ICE bench-slapped for making shit up:


Judge Martinez, a George W. Bush appointee, did not mince words in expressing his dismay that an organ of the United States government would perpetrate a fraud on the court. “Most troubling to the Court, is the continued assertion that Mr. Ramirez is gang-affiliated, despite providing no evidence specific to Mr. Ramirez to the Immigration Court in connection with his administrative proceedings, and offering no evidence to this Court to support its assertions four months later.”https://abovethelaw.com/2018/05/ice-is-so-out-of-control-the-bush-appointees-are-benchslapping-them-now/2/

[Winehole23]

the Soviet-style separation of children from parents leads to unsurprising results:


The Office of Refugee Resettlement reported at the end of 2017 (http://https//www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Wagner%20Testimony.pdf) that of the 7,000-plus children placed with sponsored individuals, the agency did not know where 1,475 of them were (https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Wagner%20Testimony.pdf).

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opin...son/631627002/ (https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2018/05/22/immigration-children-separate-families-lost-kirstjen-nielson/631627002/)

[Winehole23]

(crickets)

[boutons_deux]

I've posted several items about ICE/CBP/SS in other threads, including about Trash's SS separating/traumatizing kids and dropping "prioritization" of bad guys to deport ANYBODY they can catch at schools, at homes, at govt building, anywhere

Trash's ethnic/racial cleansing in full force, progressing unimpeded behind the disengaged, ignorant Americans, whose polls against Trash and Repug/oligarchy policies and actions are anyway, always systematically ignored.

[Winehole23]

wasn't much different under Obama, tbh

1000013867739738112

[AaronY]

With birth rates at historical lows, we have to have immigrants.


Ding ding ding. These horrible immigrants are paying for my retirement. Cut off all immigration or drop it by half or more like Trump wants to and the social security age will be raised to 85 by the time i get to retire

[boutons_deux]

Ted Lieu sets Trump and ‘BeBest’ Melania straight after Trump blames Dems for ripping families apart (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/27/1767492/-Trump-blames-Dems-for-ripping-apart-families-ACLU-and-Ted-Lieu-rip-apart-Trump-and-BeBest-Melania)

One of the most vicious, blatantly dishonest and heartless presidents in American history, is now blaming Democrats for children being torn apart from their mothers and fathers, when it was Trump who ultimately ordered ICE and Border Patrol to do so.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/874276197357596672/kUuht00m_bigger.jpg (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)Donald J. Trump
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)✔@realDonaldTrump
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.

Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL!

DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.

8:59 AM - May 26, 2018 (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1000375761604370434)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/971068447529500672/opt9QBTj_bigger.jpg (https://twitter.com/ACLU)ACLU
(https://twitter.com/ACLU)
✔@ACLU
(https://twitter.com/ACLU)
No law requires this — separating parents and children is your administration’s choice.

Hundreds of kids as young as 18 months are in danger of suffering lifelong trauma.

We won’t let you shift the blame or use families as bargaining chips for your wall.

#EndFamilySeparation (https://twitter.com/hashtag/EndFamilySeparation?src=hash)https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1000375761604370434 … (https://t.co/ixRFgPgCq6)

10:50 AM - May 26, 2018 (https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1000403709237583872)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/537271043937673217/3O1qePzP_bigger.jpeg (https://twitter.com/tedlieu)Ted Lieu
(https://twitter.com/tedlieu)
✔@tedlieu
(https://twitter.com/tedlieu)
(https://twitter.com/tedlieu)Dear @FLOTUS (https://twitter.com/FLOTUS):

Separating toddlers from parents is definitely not a #BeBest (https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeBest?src=hash) policy. Are you going to do anything about it?

No one can take your #BeBest (https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeBest?src=hash) children's agenda seriously when your husband's policy rips kids from their parents and loses track of the children.

https://twitter.com/NatImmForum/status/1000027520736088064 … (https://t.co/IQTSrvTVP4)

11:06 PM - May 25, 2018 (https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1000226623138947072)

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/27/1767492/-Trump-blames-Dems-for-ripping-apart-families-ACLU-and-Ted-Lieu-rip-apart-Trump-and-BeBest-Melania?detail=emaildkre

[Winehole23]

another reminder that US immigration authorities tearing families apart isn't a novelty:


An even higher proportion — 47 percent — of immigrants detained by ICE in California from October 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015 had no criminal history, according to Human Rights Watch’s review. (The data showed criminal history only for this shorter period of the overall time span.) The report estimates that only 9 percent were convicted of a violent felony.


“Instead of focusing on violent criminals, U.S. immigration policy has ripped apart American families and communities through the deportation of large numbers of lawful residents and undocumented immigrants with less serious criminal histories,” the report argues.


Human Rights Watch also estimates that 42 percent of the immigrants ICE detained in California over that time period were parents of U.S. citizen children. After being detained, parents of American citizens were more likely than others to be deported. Close to 47 percent of those who were deported had a child with U.S. citizenship, versus 35 percent of those who were released.

Together, the figures indicate that contrary to Obama’s avowed policy, a huge part of ICE’s enforcement efforts resulted in the separation of families, and a much smaller portion went toward deporting people who posed legitimate public safety threats.
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/15/obamas-deportation-policy-was-even-worse-than-we-thought/

[Winehole23]

Big raid in North Texas:

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/dallas/article217472740.html (https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/dallas/article217472740.html)