Midwest ICE raids targeted businesses that hired, mistreated illegal immigrants, officials say
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Arresting 147, a federal law enforcement operation — one of the largest in Homeland Security Investigations’ 15-year history — targeted Midwestern businesses that officials say knowingly hired — and mistreated — illegal immigrants.
The focus of the operation was unusual in that it targeted business operators for arrest. Most immigration raids have targeted workers suspected of being in the country illegally.
“The whole investigation was initiated, basically, because we knew that these businesses were cheating these workers and cheating taxpayers and cheating their competition,” Special Agent in Charge Tracy J. Cormier, HSI St. Paul, which oversees Nebraska and Minnesota, said.
The investigative arm of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement — Homeland Security Investigations — led the operation in Nebraska and Minnesota that saw about a dozen businesses and plants raided and 17 business owners and managers indicted for fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
Of those, 14 were taken into custody Wednesday and three were still being sought. Authorities also arrested more than 130 workers at various businesses, busing them to Grand Island, Nebraska, to be questioned and processed.
“The job magnet in the United States is primarily what draws illegal aliens across our borders,” said Cormier in a statement posted to ICE’s website . “This HSI-led criminal investigation has shown that these targeted businesses were knowingly hiring illegal workers to unlawfully line their own pockets by cheating the workers, cheating the taxpayers, and cheating their business competitors.”
The businesses engaged in a scheme that used fraudulent names and Social Security numbers to employ people in the country illegally, she said. The businesses used “force, fraud, coercion, threat of arrest and/or deportation” to exploit the workers, Cormier said. The business that hired out the immigrants also forced the workers to cash their paychecks with that business for an exorbitant fee, officials said, and withheld taxes from workers’ pay without paying those taxes to the government.
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About time. I wonder why the Obama Administration never did this./s
Obama did.
Bush Sr did
Clinton did.
According to the article, depending on which metric you use, Obama nailed the most employers.
Maybe Trump can focus on his ire about all things Obama and become the champion of cracking down on these employers.
Owning a Sylvan Pool franchise must be lucrative. We watched the same company get raided annually over and over again.
He said it was sarcasm SP. He knew that they did some things, but nowhere close to enough.
He only pointed out one POTUS and the sarcasm was because he doesn't believe it.
The sarcasm is because i expect some people would condemn him for this as well, just as they are for "caging children". (Just like Obama did.) In fact CNN even used an Obama era picture to show the horror of what Trump is doing./s
ICE worksite enforcement investigations already double over last year
5/14/2018
WASHINGTON – Less than seven months after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Thomas Homan issued a directive that called for increased worksite enforcement investigations to ensure U.S. businesses maintain a culture of compliance, the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has already doubled the amount of ongoing worksite cases this fiscal year compared to the last fully completed fiscal year.
From Oct. 1, 2017, through May 4, HSI opened 3,510 worksite investigations; initiated 2,282 I-9 audits; and made 594 criminal and 610 administrative worksite-related arrests, respectively. In comparison, for fiscal year 2017 – running October 2016 to September 2017 – HSI opened 1,716 worksite investigations; initiated 1,360 I-9 audits; and made 139 criminal arrests and 172 administrative arrests related to worksite enforcement.
Audits, arrests surge as feds crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants
May 15, 2018
Immigration authorities under President Donald Trump haven’t just cracked down on illegal immigrants, they’ve also stepped up worksite enforcement against the businesses who hire them.
Employer audits and investigations into workplace immigration violations have surged in fiscal year 2018, leading to criminal and civil arrests that far exceed the number recorded in the previous year, according to statistics released Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
There were 2,282 employer audits — known as I-9 audits — opened between Oct. 1 and May 4, according to the ICE data. That was about a 60 percent increase from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and September 2017. Total worksite investigations also spiked in the same period: ICE’s criminal investigators have opened 3,510 worksite investigations so far this fiscal year, compared to 1,716 for all of fiscal year 2017.
And that is true. At least SP had the guts to participate in this article, whereas you won't see anything about it reported by the MSM in a positive manner anywhere.
Yeah, I caught the sarc at the end...
He did, 2011 and the right roasted him as anti-business.
I always figured that the way to deal with illegals was to make them unemployable by targeting the people who would hire them.
I agree.
Just noticed this part. That'll get them if nothing else will. They may skate away from ICE, but if they get the IRS on their asses, they are toast.
You would think so, but I am aware of a pool company in Bucks County PA that has been raided almost every year and is still one of the premier pool companies in the region.
SP,
They've been raided over and over and the illegal workers were shipped out, but nothing happened to the company's profits or its CEO. Now, there's a chance that the company will find itself paying fines far larger than any savings derived from hiring illegals and the CEO may find himself looking at the outdoors through bars and servicing a guy named Bubba every night. When the CEO of the next company hears about it and sees his future, the chances are pretty good that he WILL mend his ways to avoid those penalties.
And that's just my point.
No matter who has been POTUS
Anthony & Sylvan pools are raided routinely, the illegals are deported and within a few weeks there are more illegal, itinerant, manual workers sleeping
out back in the storage trailers.
Whatever the employers/ franchisee's penalties are, they just absorb them and continue the same practices as before.
They may blend in, in San Antonio TX more than White Plains NY but they do it year in and year out.
The legal penalties are obviously not enough in many cases.
...or we could always try to stop the flow of illegals and attack it from both sides. I agree the laws need to have stiffer penalties but trying to get laws passed that punish illegals or those who employ them have been inherently difficult. For a reason.
It has never mattered in the slightest who is POTUS since ALL of them have been professional politicians. No professional politician is going to mess with rich, powerful companies who might adversely effect his/her re-election. Trump is the first POTUS in a very long time who is not a professional politician and who doesn't care whether school keeps or not. We'll see whether the CEO's of those companies go to jail. If they do, then that method might work.
The problem is that the legal penalties have never been applied. Start hammering the company officers, HARD. Don't bother going after the illegal workers, just ship them back to wherever they came from; but, send the company officers to prison. The new company officers will get that message loud and clear. Of course, no professional politician would ever do that. The company might contribute to his opponent in the next election. I get the impression that Trump just doesn't give a damn about the next election. His interest seems to be doing what we told him we wanted done, STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, no matter how you have to do it. In the words of Larry, the Cable Guy; "Get Er Done". If he doesn't, then we'll get rid of him and get another non politician to take his place.
The obvious solution.
For millions and millions of reasons.
The big losers of an enforced immigration policy are huge businesses like Coca Cola, Quaker, Pepsi, Green Giant, Del Monte...etc. Etc.
They pour millions of dollars in to stalling enforcement or reform. It hurts their bottom line because they can apply the pressure on the supplier farms. If the supplier farms have to pay more to harvest, we pay more.
There are farmers screaming now because they are so short of labor. This is going to be a very expensive undertaking.
Yes they are scamming them. Charging exorbitant fees for "check cashing" and "taxing" them and keeping the "taxes".