Immigration Law

ICE Priorities for Worksite Enforcement Clarified

By John Combs

DHS Secretary Napolitano issued guidance on April 30, 2009 clarifying that effective immediately, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will focus resources in its worksite enforcement program on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers in order to target the root cause of illegal immigration.

ICE will look for evidence of the mistreatment of workers, along with evidence of trafficking, smuggling, harboring, visa fraud, identification document fraud, money laundering, and other such criminal conduct.  ICE offices will obtain indictments, criminal arrest or search warrants, or a commitment from a U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) to prosecute the targeted employer before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a worksite.  

ICE will continue to arrest and process for removal any illegal workers who are found in the course of these worksite enforcement actions in a manner consistent with immigration law and DHS priorities.  Humanitarian guidelines will remain in effect, impacting worksite enforcements involving 25 or more illegal workers. This reflects a change from the previous threshold of 150.

In a related matter, the Supreme Court reversed lower courts and held that a conviction of aggravated identity theft requires that an individual know that the identification used belongs to another person. (Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 5/04/09). 

Charges of aggravated identity theft were brought against many of the workers arrested in the raid of the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa in May, 2008.  Critics of the tactic believe the government unfairly coerced detainees into accepting plea deals and five month prison sentences on lesser charges with the threat of more lengthy sentences that could have been imposed under the aggravated identity theft charges.  

Full post as published by Immigration Law for Employers on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).