Obama administration escalates assault on undocumented workers

[Hannah Bell]

In its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission dated February 17, 2011, Chipotle Mexican Grill revealed that it fired approximately 450 workers at 50 of its restaurants in Minnesota last year as the result of an audit by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

As part of the Obama administration’s expanded investigations into businesses suspected of employing undocumented workers, ICE is investigating approximately 60 more Chipotle restaurants in the Washington DC and Virginia areas and more than 1,000 other businesses suspected of hiring undocumented employees.

The Department of Homeland Security conducts these investigations by auditing companies’ Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9) forms, required of all new hires since 1986. ICE increased the number of I-9 audits from 500 in fiscal year 2008, the last year of the Bush administration, to 2,200 audits in 2010. Chipotle’s annual report indicates that following the audit ICE sent the company a “Notice of Suspect Documents.” The company asked each suspect employee to provide valid work documents and fired those who could not.

The Obama administration claims that the I-9 audits focus on punishing employers who exploit undocumented workers. The fines imposed on noncompliant employers, however, can be reduced through cooperation with ICE and are simply one cost of doing business. While administration officials boasted that average fines exceeded $110,000 in 2010, Chipotle had a 2010 fourth-quarter net income of $46.4 million.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/immi-m09.shtml

[Buzz Clik]

1. Why do you suppose he has increased these audits?

[Hannah Bell]

2. why do *you* suppose?

[Buzz Clik]

5. I didn't start this thread. I'm curious about your opinion.

[Hannah Bell]

7. you asked the question, i'm curious about yours.

[Buzz Clik]

9. You've answered my question already.

I won't answer yours.

[Hannah Bell]

10. and you've answered mine, buzzy.

[Buzz Clik]

12. This thread was a simple case of trolling for attention.

[Hannah Bell]

13. ironic

[LooseWilly]

3. To provide job security for ICE agents? And job opportunities for other undocumented workers?

Ohh... and because Obama will do anything he can think of that might win him a couple dozen more "soft" Republican votes?...

I think he's hoping that history will coin a new term, the "Obama Republicans"... the way that they coined the "Reagan Democrats" term. Well, it's more like a theory which is currently my best-fit explanation for the set of data that is Obama's behavior politically.

The notion of Obama risking political capital with "Obama Republicans" to-be by doing something to safeguard the dignity of workers, despite the state of their documents, is actually pretty laughable... of course Obama has increased these audits.

:+

[leftstreet]

4. Yep. Classic reacharound

er..reach across the aisle

K&R the post

[Buzz Clik]

6. So, it's because Obama is a Republican in disguise.

Makes sense as long as you don't think about it.

[Hannah Bell]

8. your sarcasm meter needs adjustment. now i see why you asked the question.

so i'm even less inclined to answer it.

[Buzz Clik]

11. My tolerance to stupidity has decreased to zero. I just can't stand it anymore.

Sorry. I tried, but the stupid really hurts.

[Hannah Bell]

14. i know what you mean

[pampango]

15. He believes it is a more effective and more humane strategy. Where he has been wrong

is in thinking that tough enforcement "would prepare the way for a legislative overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants". Teabaggers and the repub base have convinced their politicians that comprehensive immigration reform is "amnesty". I think Obama underestimated their base's anti-immigrant sentiment and their ability to intimidate repubs who were pro-reform in the past.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/us/10enforce.html?_r=1

The Obama administration has replaced immigration raids at factories and farms with a quieter enforcement strategy: sending federal agents to scour companies’ records for illegal immigrant workers.

Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures. Thousands of those workers have been fired, immigrant groups estimate. (Deportations hit a record high last year, too.)

Employers say the audits reach more companies than the work-site roundups of the administration of President George W. Bush. The audits force businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant on the payroll— not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid — and make it much harder to hire other unauthorized workers as replacements. Auditing is “a far more effective enforcement tool,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, which includes many worried fruit growers.

President Obama, in a speech last week, explained a two-step immigration policy. He promised tough enforcement against illegal immigration, in workplaces and at the border, saying it would prepare the way for a legislative overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. White House officials say the enforcement is under way, but they acknowledge the overhaul is unlikely to happen this year.