by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.

The U.S. economy includes a significant number of unlawfully present workers who are undocumented and unaccounted for. Research by the Government Account­ability Office (GAO) indicates an alarming degree of collaboration on the part of employers in hiring illegal workers.[1] This excessive acceptance of a shadow work­force encourages illegal border crossings, encourages other companies to break the law, and forces states and local communities to subsidize cheap, illegal labor by bearing social costs such as uncompensated emergency room care, education, and social services.

Both the House and the Senate have proposed leg­islation for strengthening workplace enforcement. Both envision using the Basic Pilot program, created in 1996 under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, as a principal tool for denying unlawfully present workers employment.[2] This approach fails on a three counts:

It is unlikely that Basic Pilot will prove to be an effective tool;
The implementation of the program will place excessive and unnecessary burdens on the U.S. economy; and
There are practical and more effective means to enhance workplace enforcement.
I propose an enforcement strategy that could be implemented without creating more government and a huge and expensive information technology program. This strategy could be implemented by revising the U.S. tax code to facilitate cooperation between federal agencies in enforcing the law. I pro­pose amending the tax code in a way that will pro­tect privacy rights and still allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with the cooperation of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Inter­nal Revenue Service (IRS), to find those large employers who intentionally violate the law by hir­ing illegal workers and giving the government incorrect information.

 Avon Park and Palm Bay are among cities and states across the country attempting to pass laws targeting illegal immigration. Such measures also have been proposed in the California cities of San Bernardino and Escondido. Colorado and Georgia have passed laws targeting companies that employ undocumented workers and requiring proof of legal residency to obtain government services.

Palm Bay has given preliminary approval to a proposal that would penalize companies that hire undocumented workers. The ordinance, which the City Council is set to take up again on Aug. 17, would require fines and the suspension of business permits for companies that violate it. A similar proposal in Avon Park failed last month but may be brought up again.

August 3, 2006

Grady County-  Grady County employers tackled the issue of handling illegal migrant workers. As the number of migrant workers in south Georgia continues to climb, so does the responsibly of employers to make sure the workers they hire are here legally.

The migrant worker population increases a little each year in south Georgia and in counties like Grady.

"In the early 80's there were very few Hispanics in our community, and oh, I would say it's probably like ten, fifteen, twenty percent of our community now, is Hispanic," said Phillip Gainous, Gainous Agriculture, Gainous Labor Services.

Jim Kouri

As part of its efforts to combat illegal alien employment schemes through criminal prosecutions, Department of Homeland Security officials on Friday announced the results of three separate investigations that resulted in criminal charges against businesses employing illegal aliens in Kentucky, Ohio, and Arkansas.
On Thursday, two limited liability corporations in Kentucky pleaded guilty to criminal charges of harboring illegal aliens and money laundering in connection with an illegal employment scheme at hotels. They agreed to pay $1.5 million cash in lieu of forfeiture and create internal compliance programs. The sentencing in this case is slated for October 2006.

Meanwhile in Ohio, Immigration agents arrested the owner of a restaurant on felony charges of harboring illegal aliens after 10 of his illegal workers were apprehended. In Arkansas, agents arrested the owner of a construction business on felony charges and apprehended 27 of his illegal workers.

"ICE is taking an increasingly tough stance against egregious corporate violators that knowingly employ illegal aliens. Bringing criminal charges against these unscrupulous employers and targeting their ill-gotten gains is a tactic we are adopting nationwide," said ICE Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers.