Many employers today, from small farms to huge corporations, hire illegal workers to do the job Americans don't want to do. These businesses lure in illegal workers desperately seeking to feed their family. The relative ease of getting a low-paying job in America attracts thousands of illegal immigrants every day. These businesses rarely go unpunished by the government, so their use of illegal labor continues. As long as employers are willing to hire illegals, there will be new illegal immigrants crossing our border everday.
The government has done little up till now to penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants. Worksite enforcement programs were scaled back 95 percent between 1999 and 2003. Also between this time period, the number of businesses prosecuted for hiring illegals went from 182 in 1999 to only FOUR in 2003, and the fines collected from these businesses dropped from $3.6 million to $212,000. The government also issued fine notices to only three employers in 2003 compared to 417 in 1999. The gradual step down in enforcement of employers who hire illegals came with the move of President Bush into the White House. The more relaxed enforcement has also been caused by immigrant rights groups, business lobbies, and members of Congress. Recently, however President Bush has improved the E-verify system (formerly the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program) which is an online system that verifies the eligibility of a potential employee. The system is run by both the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. The system works by comparing the employee's I-9 form against the SSA and Department of Homeland Security databases. More than 87,000 employers are currently enrolled in the program. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have also recently arrested seven current and former supervisors of IFCO Systems North America, who were accused of transporting and harboring illegals. If convicted, the company executives could face jail time and a $250,000 fine. Hopefully, this is a positive sign that the government is cracking down on companies like IFCO.
This aspect of illegal immigration promises to be a hot topic for the future president, either Barack Obama or John McCain. Both believe that a stronger crackdown on employers who hire illegals is needed. Whoever is chosen as our next president needs to be prepared to enforce all regulations that will decrease the attraction that immigrants feel for the United States.