Cracking down harder on illegal immigrants (auditing "illegal employers")

[pampango]

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/118301014.html

Nobody has been fired from ROC Commercial Cleaning in Oakdale -- at least not yet. Since they got word that federal immigration officials are poring over the company's employment records, some janitors have simply quit.

His company is one of at least nine businesses across the Twin Cities undergoing a so-called immigration audit, part of the Obama administration's national crackdown on employers using undocumented workers. At least 2,000 people in the Twin Cities have lost their jobs in the last 18 months as a result of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) finding that they couldn't prove their eligibility to work in the United States.

The results of ICE's audits offer a warning to businesses, especially those using low-skill workers:

•The number of audits jumped more than 50 percent last year to about 2,200 from 1,444 in 2009.

•Criminal arrests of employers have jumped 45 percent since 2008. Of the 196 employers arrested last year, 42 have been sent to prison so far, with sentences ranging from time served to 3 1/2 years. Many cases are pending.

A local union is calling the firings an attack on the immigrant community. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26 in St. Paul, which represents about 5,000 local janitors and maintenance staff, is holding a vigil Sunday at Incarnation Church in south Minneapolis.

[FormerDittoHead]

1. Good! They SHOULD be doing this - go after the employers and dry the market up!

I'm on the same page as Thom Hartmann:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0705-23.htm

[Andy823]

2. The fact is

If this had been done from 1985 on, we wouldn't have this problem. Workers would have gone through the legal channels, employers would not have been able to take advantage of the workers, and employers would not have been able to keep wages low, not pay benefits, or pay under the table!

Why the union is upset is beyond me! Since 1985 the flood of illegals has helped push wages down, and in my opinion has helped to reduce the number of union workers.