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US Secretary of Homeland Security calls for review of workplace immigration raid

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has called for a review of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace immigration raid that occurred in Bellingham, Washington on Tuesday. In a Wednesday hearing, Napolitano told lawmakers that she was not made aware of the raid which resulted in the arrest of 28 foreign nationals, adding: In my view, we have to do workplace enforcement it needs to be focused on employers who intentionally and knowingly exploit the illegal labor market. That has impacts on American workers, it has an impact on wage levels, often has undue impact on the illegal workers themselves. Our ICE efforts should be focused on those sorts of things.Napolitano issued a directive in January calling for the review and assessment of ICE fugitive operation teams in response to a number of workplace raids similar to Tuesday's.Earlier this month, ICE tactics under the Bush administration were criticized for being overly-aggressive and ineffective. ICE has arrested many non-criminal illegal immigrants in the past year, many of whom were imprisoned. In April, Seton Hall Law School's Center for Social Justice filed a lawsuit claiming that warrantless immigration raids violate the US Constitution.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).