Illegal Workers Get the "Silent" Treatment

          Employers and farm workers around the country are now experiencing the latest Obama Administration immigration enforcement effort—“silent raids” in the form of I-9 audits by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.  Instead of often dramatic immigration sweeps at factories and farms which generally led to deportation for the employees, the federal agents conduct audits aimed at discovering unauthorized workers on an employer’s payroll.  The audits force the businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant on the payroll, and not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of the raid.

            In the past year, ICE has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies, resulting in $3 million in civil fines on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures reported by the New York Times.  In 2008, the agency conducted only 500 audits.  “Instead of hundreds of agents going after one company, now one agent can go after hundreds of companies,” said Mark Reed, president of Border Management Strategies, an immigration and border security consulting firm in Tucson, Arizona. 

          According to an ICE spokesman, “The Obama Administration is holding employers accountable for their hiring practices through criminal prosecutions, civil and administrative tools to deter illegal employment.  ICE has refocused enforcement efforts to utilize Form I-9 audits to target employers who knowingly violate the law by employing an illegal workforce.”  In addition, the Times reported that the agency’s goal is to create a “culture of compliance” among employers and that they are looking for “egregious employers” who commit both labor abuses and immigration violations.