[Rhodes22-list] Reduce your federal income tax (political humor)
Gregg J. MacMillan
gjm at techgra.com
Wed Jun 28 09:46:47 EDT 2006
Just enforce existing laws...it's amazing how well this concept seems
to be working in the Greater Cincinnati area.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Fischer Homes feels sting of 'get tough' approach
By Michael Collins
Post Washington Bureau
NEARLY 100 PEOPLE FACING CHARGES
Nearly 100 people have now been charged in an ongoing investigation
into the use of illegal immigrants in the Northern Kentucky
home-building industry
Most face charges of being in the United States illegally, but nearly
two dozen others face charges of harboring the men by providing them
with jobs and places to live.
Four Fischer Homes supervisors - Tim Copsy, William Allison, Bill
Ring and Doug Witt - have been charged with harboring illegal workers
by providing them jobs. The men, who face up to 10 years in prison,
have pleaded innocent and are free on bail.
Fischer Homes has denied that the company or any of its employees
have done anything wrong.
WASHINGTON - Not long ago, whenever federal authorities caught
employers hiring illegal immigrants, they usually dealt with the
problem by slapping the company with a stiff fine.
But when agents raided four Northern Kentucky construction sites
operated by Fischer Homes last month, they took a tougher approach.
They arrested four supervisors and dozens of undocumented workers and
charged them with crimes.
The criminal charges reflect a dramatic shift in the federal
government's strategy for cracking down on employers who hire illegal
immigrants. Officials say employers take the threat of criminal
charges much more seriously than fines, which were often reduced
during negotiations.
"More robust criminal cases against unscrupulous employers are a much
more effective deterrent than levying administrative fines," said
Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency.
"We find that the prospect of 10 years in federal prison or federal
forfeiture carries much sharper teeth, and that is the future of our
worksite enforcement efforts."
The government initiated the get-tough approach after the Immigration
and Naturalization Service was terminated in 2003 and most of its
responsibilities were transferred to three agencies within the newly
created Department of Homeland Security.
One of those agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement - or ICE -
is responsible for immigration and customs laws inside the United
States.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is conducting far more criminal
investigations than the old Immigration and Naturalization Service,
which tended to rely on administrative fines as a sanction against
companies caught hiring illegal workers.
Such fines were matters between the employer and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service and were not governed by the courts.
Authorities say criminal investigations are more effective because
defendants can now be convicted in court and face the possibility of
prison time. Even if a case is settled, the agreement could still
fall under the court's jurisdiction.
That is significant because it means that payments would be mandatory
and that other stipulations could be included in the settlement, such
as requiring that a company put internal procedures in place to
comply with the law.
Before the policy shift, illegal worker arrests had fallen off
dramatically, from 2,849 in 1999 to 445 in 2003, according to a
report by the government's General Accounting Office.
The following year, however, those numbers began to climb - jumping
to 845 in 2004 and 1,145 in 2005. This year alone, more than 2,100
people have been arrested. And those numbers don't include the
arrests in the Fischer Homes investigation or several other raids
that took place last month.
In the criminal cases, the government typically brings charges of
knowingly hiring illegal aliens and, whenever possible, of money
laundering and harboring illegal aliens. Money laundering is a felony
punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while harboring illegal
aliens carries a potential 10-year prison sentence.
Those charges also give authorities the right to seize assets that
employers have derived from criminal activities.
"It is good to see that they are making an attempt to enforce the
law," said Caroline Espinosa, spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, which is
pushing for tougher immigration enforcement. "Sometimes, fines aren't
enough."
Fines were considered just another cost of doing business and
especially palatable to employers because they were offset by the
savings from employing illegal aliens, "in most cases, at a much
lower wage than they would be paying American citizens," Espinosa
said.
"Breaking this law actually hurts more people than most people
realize," she said, because "it drives down wages for American
citizens as well."
Columbus, Ohio, attorney David Cook, who specializes in
employment-based immigration issues, said that while criminal charges
are a deterrent to hiring undocumented workers, he thinks the recent
raids are part of a bigger strategy to build support for the Bush
administration's proposed guest worker program.
"I think the way they see the opportunity to build support for that
is to show that they are getting tough on the unauthorized workers
and on worksite enforcement," said Cook.
Many employers make a good-faith effort to comply with immigration
laws, Cook said, but find the process used to verify a worker's
identity and work authorization is cumbersome and difficult to do
correctly.
For example, the Department of Homeland Security has changed the type
of documents that an individual can present for identification
purposes and to verify work authorization. Yet, "they continue to
publish and provide a form that has the old list of documents," Cook
said. "They've never bothered to update their forms."
Employers "need to be educated as to what the law is and come to an
understanding of how the government is applying the law," he said.
--
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
T e c h n e G r a p h i c s, I n c.
1 . 8 0 0 . 7 7 1 . 3 1 7 1
2002 Ford Circle, Milford, OH 45150
mailto:gjm at techgra.com
http://www.techgra.com
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
More information about the Rhodes22-list
mailing list