Homeland Security cracks down on those hiring illegals

Thursday, 07 May 2009 00:00

The Department of Homeland Security’s recent mandate to step up enforcement against those who hire illegal workers could prove troublesome to some agricultural employers.

But not if those employers are doing what’s required of them to staff their businesses, says Ned Meister, Texas Farm Bureau’s director of commodity and regulatory activities.

“The long and short of it is this: If you’ve been following the law in your hiring practices—doing what you’re supposed to do when you employ somebody—it shouldn’t make any difference at all,” Meister said. “If you check their documents, have them fill out an I-9 and document everything, that’s all you really can do as an employer.

“But if you haven’t, you better darn well worry,” Meister added.

Homeland Security issued directives in late April instructing officers with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit to immediately enhance their surveillance efforts of worksite enforcement, which ultimately changes the agency’s course from prosecuting and removing undocumented workers to filing cases against the establishments where they find work.

According to national news sources, ICE will continue to arrest and process for removal any illegal workers who are found in the course of worksite enforcement actions.

But ICE also will use all available civil and administrative tools, including civil fines and debarment, to penalize and deter illegal employment. They will be working hand-in-hand with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to obtain search warrants, indictments and criminal arrests for any employer who snubs the law and knowingly hires illegal labor.

Not that those orders are entirely new to ICE officers, said Bruce Frasier, a Carrizo Springs farmer who serves on both the Texas Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau Federation’s farm labor committees.

“Employer monitoring has always been the law when it comes to ICE enforcement,” Frasier said. “About the only difference is that there is now a directive to actively enforce it.”

As of early May, Frasier said he had heard of no major busts or raids of employers, but given the new directives, he was fairly certain something would likely occur over the next few weeks.

From a personal standpoint, his Dixondale Farms has no worries.

Frasier grows acres of onion transplants and melons, and offers nearly year-round employment to hundreds of workers. Considering he’s just a few miles from the Texas-Mexico border, many of those workers are not American citizens.

Still, his employment records are clean, Frasier said. He uses the e-verify system in his employment practices. When he hires someone, he enters their Social Security number into the database and can usually know within 24 hours if that number is held by a legal, documented worker.

Given the fact that the standard employment verification documents—a social security card and birth certificate can typically get most folks hired—are obtainable on the black market, Frasier and others have pushed to make the e-verify system more widely available to all employers.

Sorting out documents and determining which are legitimate can prove a daunting task for employers. Frasier’s e-verify system takes out the guesswork.

Still, e-verify has faced many roadblocks, he said.

“We were trying to get e-verify measures put in place for contractors hiring people to do jobs with all of these stimulus funds,” he said. “So far, all of those efforts have been shot down. It’s been my experience that those fighting the system probably have something to hide.”

Of course, those without access to e-verify systems can still be in compliance, Meister noted.

“E-verify definitely offers a level of comfort, but provided employers are diligent in their hiring practices, they’ve done they’re job,” Meister said.

“No one expects them to be document fraud specialists.”

Farm Bureau policy has backed a complete overhaul of the nation’s immigration policy, focusing efforts on a rewrite of guest worker and farm labor policies in particular. Still, legislative efforts have not proven fruitful in Washington, D.C.

“I believe we will likely see greater enforcement measures out of Washington with our current administration,” Frasier said. “But until we get some better laws on the books, employers can only work with the best tools they’ve been given.”

- Bobby Horecka, TFB Staff Writer