December 27, 2007

Immigration Crackdown on Businesses Falls Short

Based on its year-end review, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that arrests nearly quadrupled this year as compared to previous years. Nearly 4,900 arrests were made this year involving unauthorized workers, providers of forged documents, and others, while fewer than 100 business owners, supervisors or hiring officials were arrested in fiscal 2007. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff added that the enforcement crackdown will "make a down payment on credibility with the American people."

However, only a small fraction of those arrests involved criminal charges against businesses for hiring undocumented workers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that 92 criminal arrests included 59 owners and 33 corporate officials, human resources workers, crew chiefs, and others in the "supervisory chain." Still, this year's 92 criminal arrests makes only a microscopic dent to a national economy comprised of six million companies employing more than seven million unauthorized workers. Of those, only 17 companies faced criminal fines or other forfeitures this year. For example, Richard M. Rosenbaum, former president of a nationwide cleaning contractor based in Florida, pleaded guilty to harboring unauthorized immigrants and conspiracy to defraud the government, and agreed to pay more than $17 million in restitution and forfeitures.

The remaining 771 criminal arrests targeted workers and other individuals. Nearly 90 percent of those arrests involved identity theft or document fraud, money laundering, provision of transportation or documentation to illegal workers, or other crimes. Criminal fines and other penalties grew from $600,000 in 2003 to more than $30 million in 2007. Nevertheless, agency spokesman Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery said ICE focuses primarily on "egregious" violators whose business models rely on hiring undocumented immigrants, such as Rosenbaum’s.

GT will continue to provide timely updates on this subject.