U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have announced that the time has come to tighten the reins on employers who hire undocumented workers.
"Fines are all well and good, but they are not enough," said Julia Myers, assistant to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. "But the fear of being deprived of your freedom for a long time is a much stronger weapon against those who knowingly break the law. Be forewarned: You will be arrested and imprisoned."
Those of us who welcome such a forceful approach to solving the problem of illegal immigration give Ms. Myers a standing ovation. It's about time!
Over the last decade, employers who hire undocumented workers have been threatened only periodically every two to three years. It is an important question, and those who raise it easily attract the attention of the general public (i.e. the voters). Furthermore, politicians usually collect a wad of donations during "crackdown" campaigns. After an avalanche of loud proclamations and frenetic chest beating – "Now we'll show them!" – inactivity returns fairly quickly. Everything reverts to its usual state: The politicians have made their pronouncements, the law enforcement officials have had their slice of the cake, society (those who are against undocumented workers) has gotten a chance to sound off and let off steam.
That's it, the theater is closed, wait for next season. I can confirm this from my own journalistic experience.
In 1998, an innovative idea known as “Operation Vanguard” was born in the bowels of the immigration agency, known at that time as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Authorities decided to test this program out in a number of states, beginning with Nebraska, a small, conservative state with a mostly Caucasian population. The INS had no intention of carrying out any raids or arrests in the manner of the current immigration agency. Its agents simply compared lists of workers at a meat processing plant with data provided by the Social Security Administration. They then asked the employers to deal with the almost 5,000 workers who raised their suspicion. Not wanting to run into trouble, the employers complied: 3,500 of the 5,000 were fired.
The higher-ups at the INS were thrilled with this successful beginning and decided to extend this innovative experiment to other states. Their way of thinking was very simple: We'll threaten the businessmen, and they will be so frightened that they will begin getting rid of undocumented workers and start hiring only U.S. citizens or foreigners with work permits. The need for raids and deportation would disappear of its own accord, undocumented workers, deprived of a means of feeding themselves and their families, would have to return home, on their own, without our help. Cheap and effective!
Easier said than done. Further implementation of “Operation Vanguard” was met with fierce resistance on the part of employers, unions, politicians, and, most importantly, the general public. It turned out that Americans, who on the one hand want the laws of their country to be respected, on the other hand do not want to lose those services that they receive thanks to the cheap labor of undocumented immigrants. In 1999, “Operation Vanguard” was peacefully laid to rest. Incidentally, in 1998, a record 14,000 undocumented workers were arrested at work. According to figures from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), law enforcement authorities arrested only 445 people in 2003.
That Myers’ rhetoric on the pages of USA Today is just hot air is proven by the first words of her written response to the newspaper's editorial board.
"The majority of employers in our country aim to operate within the framework of the law, and it is only some unprincipled businessmen who hire undocumented workers and in doing so break the law. The new strategy will be used against them," Myers said.
From these words alone the conclusion can be drawn that the Department of Homeland Security’s threatening warnings to employers and its references to some sort of new strategy on the part of its patron (entitled the Interior Enforcement Strategy) are no more than grandstand play. In order to showcase its new strategy, the Department of Homeland Security will most certainly get busy with “some unprincipled businessmen,” pretending that the others do not exist. But seven million undocumented immigrants currently work at U.S. businesses! So how many “unprincipled businessmen” does that leave us with?
According to Myers, President Bush has requested $41.7 million from Congress for operations during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security, will shake down businesses in search of undocumented immigrants, and then open criminal investigations into their employers. Myers believes this is the only way to remove the filth.
Excuse me, but Bush recently announced in Orange County – one of the most conservative counties in California – that, “Mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants located in this country is unrealistic because there is no way of deporting such a large number of people. They need to be allowed ‘to get in line’ to become citizens, but before doing this, they will have to pay a fine for illegally residing in the United States.”
Control over the Department of Homeland Security is the exclusive right of the president. That is why it is so hard to imagine that he is unaware of the heavy-handed operations, publicly referred to by Myers, that Chertoff and his gang are planning against employers. Then why is all this being hatched if the head of state, the caretaker of the Department of Homeland Security, fundamentally rejects such a solution to the immigration problem?
I could, of course, be mistaken: However, I will allow myself to say that the harsh rhetoric on the part of the Department of Homeland Security and possible actions used to set an example, as in the case of IFCO Corporation managers, are no more than a cleverly conceived PR campaign that will enable Chertoff to have an easier time of getting money to finance his Department as a whole and its enforcement arms in particular. It is easier to wring money out of Congress to the beating of drums and convince the general public that the reins have been tightened: That Department of Homeland Security investigators are energetically sharpening their quills and chomping at the bit to interrogate “unprincipled businessmen.”
While the tumultuous crowds hue and cry, the serious aunties and uncles will be getting everything they need. That is how it used to be, how it is now and how it always will be.
