US authorities hold tougher line on hiring illegal immigrants

Criminal arrests, often of executives, quadrupled in a year. But is it a tactic to pass a guest-worker program?

from the March 20, 2007 edition

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Executives of cleaning firm indicted

In another big case, three principals of RCI, a multimillion-dollar cleaning firm, were charged last month for tax evasion and harboring illegal aliens.

The workers were recruited at Hispanic fairs and through Spanish newspapers and were never required to fill out W-4 tax-withholding documents or I-9 employee-verification forms, according to the federal indictment. All wages were paid in cash through a variety of shell companies, prosecutors say.

The use of illegal workers "pervades many industries throughout the United States," writes John Vandevelde, a lawyer representing one of the RCI executives, in an e-mail. His client "expects to resolve this matter to everyone's satisfaction."

Spokesmen for the poultry, meat, and construction industries say that such outright scams are not the norm. Most such industries support collaborative efforts by ICE, such as the Basic Pilot program, which helps businesses double-check IDs with a Social Security database, and a new "best practices" framework, IMAGE, which provides a set of guidelines that companies can follow to ensure they don't hire illegal workers.

Still, for many industries that employ low-wage laborers, obeying current federal regulations remains a "not too hot, not too cold" enterprise, says Janet Riley, a spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute, a Washington, D.C., trade group. "If you don't screen closely enough and [papers] are falsified, then you face immigration issues. If you scrutinize too close, you face [federal] civil rights issues."

So far, the recent arrests of plant managers and executives aren't affecting hiring practices of low-wage labor, says Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the Chicken Council in Washington.

Some observers say the targeted enforcement may be a short-lived and symbolic shot aimed straight at Congress.

Though everyone "from the dog catcher to the coroner" in theory supports tougher immigration enforcement, the workplace crackdown is more likely a "dress rehearsal" for another attempt at establishing a guest-worker program, says US Rep. Tom Tancredo (R) of Colorado, a candidate for president in 2008.

The upshot? "Increasing enforcement of businesses is going to really ratchet up the lobbying pressure on senators and congressmen who get a good chunk of their campaign cash from business interests," says John Booth, political scientist at the University of North Texas in Denton. "Those who stand to benefit from a normalization of a wider labor supply from abroad are going to put some real pressure on Congress to fix this before they get their executives put in jail."

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