Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies
going to net a huge percentage of the illegal workforce, but because they send a very clear message to both the employers of illegal aliens and the illegal workers themselves that there is no security. You can and might well be arrested at any time for being an illegal worker and committing ID fraud by lying to your employer, the IRS, and social security. Or if you are an employer who knowingly illegal aliens, then you too can be arrested.
The only way you can really get a decent case against an employer is if you are also arresting the illegal workers and use them as witnesses against the employer. If you look at that raid in Iowa at the kosher meat packing plant. The Iowa state government had its eye on it and was investigating it for all kinds of violations – labor law, healthy, safety, you name it. But only after it was raided by immigration did they finally succeed in cracking open all the offenses that were being committed there. There were all kinds of fines and people were going to jail, but that never happened until the immigration raid. They could not get people to talk on the record on the witness stand about what was going on until the raid.
HSNW: So in other words, this administration really needs a two prong approach with raids and audits.
MK: Absolutely, but there are other things too. You need to make the E-Verify program mandatory. This administration says they are for that, but they are not doing anything about it. They are not drafting measures or floating proposed legislation. E-Verify is something everyone agrees upon ostensibly. Why are we not doing that?
It makes it easier to identify the bad actor employers. When the legitimate folks who employ illegal workers are shown fake documents by illegals when they lie to get hired, the employer is not allowed to look closer and say, “Are you sure? This is pretty fishy. Do you have any other forms of ID?” You cannot say that as an employer, but the Justice Department can and will. So yes, we need raids and audits as well as these other things that relate to that strategy.
HSNW: You mention the E-Verify system. There was a recent
