DHS Shifting Focus of Workplace Enforcement to Employers
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that it is shifting the department's immigration enforcement efforts to the employers that hire undocumented workers. The announcement is a move away from the Bush Administration's policy of workplace raids.
DHS will provide ICE agents today with new instructions to target employers through carefully planned criminal investigations. The agency said it will continue to detain illegal aliens, but they will no longer use them to help convict employers. Officials said that raids during the Bush Administration were based more on tips that an employer was hiring illegal aliens rather than building a case against the employers themselves.
According to the new guidelines obtained by the New York Times: "Enforcement efforts focused on employers better target the root causes of illegal immigration. ICE must prioritize the criminal prosecution of actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers because such employers are not sufficiently punished or deterred by the arrest of their illegal work force."
For more information, see the New York Times.