Border czar: ICE to expand worksite enforcement program

Border Czar Tom Homan confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to expand worksite enforcement operations, also known as “briefcase enforcement,” in an effort to eliminate one of the chief incentives for illegal immigration.

Homan said in an Oct. 18 Fox News interview that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative division of ICE, approved plans to expand worksite enforcement last week.

“I know the worksite enforcement plan just cleared last week out of HSI because I asked for the plan,” he said.

“I think the gentlemen I brought in did a tremendous job. A lot of it is focusing on not just worksite enforcement, but those who use fraudulent IDs to steal your Social Security numbers. We’ll prosecute them,” he added. “And for employers that knowingly hire illegal aliens, it’s not just about arresting aliens. It’s about holding employers accountable so they don’t try employing illegal aliens.”

Homan said that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin should review the proposed enforcement expansions within the next week.

Nicknamed “briefcase enforcement,” the use of worksite enforcement is expected to bolster President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, allowing ICE, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other federal agencies to target employers who hire illegal aliens.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), foreign nationals, including illegal aliens, are not permitted to enter the U.S. to work without prior federal authorization. Those who do so illegally are removable under the INA. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 further bolstered the INA’s provisions by empowering federal authorities to investigate and sanction U.S.-based employers who hire illegal aliens.

The IRCA requires employers to verify that new hires are legally eligible to work in the U.S., either because they are U.S. citizens or because they are foreign nationals with legal work authorization.

The I-9 employment form mandated by the IRCA requires new hires to attest that they are legally authorized to work in the U.S. and requires employers to support the claim by obtaining documentary evidence: a U.S. passport or social security card, a legal permanent residency green card, or work authorization documents.

“Briefcase enforcement,” carried out by HSI, begins when agents serve a business or an employer with a Notice of Inspection giving the employer three days to produce the I-9 forms for all its employees. Those forms, once completed by employees, are not sent to DHS but are instead stored by the employer.

Agents then analyze the provided I-9 forms, comparing the information against federal databases, alien registration numbers, social security numbers, and other data. Any technical discrepancies trigger a Notice of Technical or Procedural Failures, affording the employer 10 days to rectify any discrepancies. If those discrepancies cannot be rectified, the employer faces sanctions, including fines.

If HSI agents have reason to suspect that the employer has hired illegal aliens, however, the agency can serve the employer with a Notice of Discrepancies, requiring the employer to either fire the flagged employee or else have the employee rectify discrepancies directly with ICE. HSI can also serve employers with a Notice of Suspect Documents, which tells employers that HSI “has determined that the documentation presented by employee(s) do not relate to the employee(s) or are otherwise not valid for employment.”

The INA empowers HSI to fine employers anywhere from $100 to $2,861 per illegal alien hired and to impose criminal fines of up to $3,000 per illegal alien hired and jail time in cases where HSI has identified a “pattern” of hiring illegal aliens.

Alternatively, HSI and ICE may choose to visit the worksite and request an opportunity to speak to employees suspected of being illegal aliens. In cases where employers refuse those requests or where agents have reason to believe that the hiring of illegal aliens is pervasive, ICE may obtain a judicial warrant and launch a raid.

Unlike the usual administrative warrants ICE uses, which are issued by immigration judges in the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, the judicial warrants used for ICE worksite raids, nicknamed “Blackie’s warrants,” do not require ICE to identify the illegal aliens to be arrested, instead empowering agents to arrest anyone at the worksite identified in the I-9 form reviews as an illegal alien.

In comments shared with Zeale News, Andrew R. Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that while ICE raids and arrests on the street are helpful and necessary, there is “a safer and more efficient way to end what draws aliens illegally to the United States and to deport those here unlawfully: worksite enforcement.”

“Jobs are the magnet drawing aliens to the United States illegally, and illegal aliens are most likely to be found — and most heavily concentrated — in workplaces run by businesses willing to look the other way during the hiring process,” Arthur said. “Street and prison arrests of criminal aliens and those under final orders are appropriate (and usually mandated), but to make a big dent in the illegal population ICE should engage in ‘briefcase immigration enforcement’ and start investigating the employers.”