Businesses with illegal alien employees are bracing for a second Trump administration where they expect fierce worksite enforcement by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gutted by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“While much of the incoming administration’s policy agenda for the immigrant workforce is still unknown, employers are gearing up for a dramatic increase in worksite enforcement, as outlined by key Trump officials,” Bloomberg Law reports:
That will include a return of surprise raids of companies suspected of employing unauthorized immigrant workers already promised by former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director and Trump “border czar” pick Tom Homan. Employers will also see stepped up I-9 audits that could be just as disruptive for many companies. [Emphasis added]
“This enforcement may come fast, unannounced and really without much warning,” said Scott Bettridge, chair of the immigration practice at Cozen O’Connor PC. [Emphasis added]
Such ICE raids are critical to enforcing federal immigration law, experts have long argued, as some nine million migrants are estimated to be holding American jobs today. Illegal aliens are particularly vulnerable to unscrupulous employers who steal their wages and require them to work long, grueling hours, often in dangerous jobs that can easily turn fatal.
A wide-ranging report from the New York Times, published this week, details a flourishing underground economy where United States-based staffing agents prey on illegal aliens to funnel them into jobs with big companies where they end up being exploited:
Staffing agencies were among the top employers of unauthorized workers at sites inspected for immigration violations over the past decade, according to data collected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The records indicate that at least 160 staffing firms, most of them identified during the Trump administration, employed people with suspicious documents or no evidence of authorization. [Emphasis added]
Despite businesses’ widespread hiring of illegal aliens, few are prosecuted, and nationwide mandatory E-Verify has yet to be approved by Congress.
“Federal, state and local regulators have pursued at least 80 investigations of agencies over possible violations involving immigrants,” the Times reports, “including many who are in the United States illegally, according to records from the Department of Homeland Security obtained through public records requests.”
In June 2019, for example, Breitbart News reported that between April 2018 and March 2019, only 11 employers were prosecuted for hiring illegal aliens, while no businesses were prosecuted. Of those 11 employers prosecuted, just three received prison time.
Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, is a major proponent of nationwide mandatory E-Verify — the program designed to weed out illegal employment — as are several other appointees.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
