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Arpaio blasts ICE approach to illegal workers
From coast to coast, more than 600 companies are under the watchful eye of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is looking for illegal workers.
by Sandra Haros/KTAR (October 1st, 2009 @ 7:52am)
From coast to coast, more than 600 companies are under the watchful eye of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is looking for illegal workers.
ICE has changed its tactics some -- checking hiring records and requiring companies to fire workers who were hired illegally -- instead of workplace raids, such as have been conducted by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio since Arizona's employer sanctions law took effect the first of this year. ICE is not arresting workers or deporting them on the spot.
Arpaio said the ICE approach is bad business.
"This is a cover to just say, `We're going after the employer. We're a hero,'" Arpaio said. "What about the employees who are here illegally?"
The sheriff added, "If you have all these illegals working in the workplace, they violated the law to be here. They are criminals when they cross that border. Everybody forgets that."
The most recent ICE case involved American Apparel in Los Angeles, a popular clothing maker, which was ordered to fire more than one-quarter of its work force, about 1,800 workers, after federal agents found questionable identity documents.
From coast to coast, more than 600 companies are under the watchful eye of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is looking for illegal workers.
by Sandra Haros/KTAR (October 1st, 2009 @ 7:52am)
From coast to coast, more than 600 companies are under the watchful eye of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is looking for illegal workers.
ICE has changed its tactics some -- checking hiring records and requiring companies to fire workers who were hired illegally -- instead of workplace raids, such as have been conducted by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio since Arizona's employer sanctions law took effect the first of this year. ICE is not arresting workers or deporting them on the spot.
Arpaio said the ICE approach is bad business.
"This is a cover to just say, `We're going after the employer. We're a hero,'" Arpaio said. "What about the employees who are here illegally?"
The sheriff added, "If you have all these illegals working in the workplace, they violated the law to be here. They are criminals when they cross that border. Everybody forgets that."
The most recent ICE case involved American Apparel in Los Angeles, a popular clothing maker, which was ordered to fire more than one-quarter of its work force, about 1,800 workers, after federal agents found questionable identity documents.
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