ICE ICE Baby

Here is some context to Immigration and Customs Enforcement: From their Web site.

With the launch of the second phase of the Secure Border Initiative, ICE has initiated a strategic shift in the way it approaches employers that intentionally violate the law and knowingly hire illegal aliens by bringing criminal charges against them and seizing their illegally-derived assets -- rather than relying on the old tactic of administrative fines as sanctions. Last fiscal year, this new approach resulted in 127 criminal convictions, up from 46 the previous fiscal year. More employers are also being charged with money laundering violations, which can result in prison sentences of up to 20 years. Last year, a single ICE worksite enforcement investigation resulted in a settlement and forfeiture of $15 million, an amount that represented the largest worksite enforcement penalty in U.S. history and surpassed the sum of all administrative fines from the previous eight years. ICE seeks to enhance its worksite enforcement investigations with proposed additional funding. The Administration's fiscal year 2007 budget request seeks $41.7 million in new funds and 171 additional agents to enhance ICE's worksite enforcement efforts. Most recently, ICE brought criminal charges against seven current and former managers of the nation’s largest pallet services company and arrested more than 1,000 of the company’s illegal alien employees.


TK: The phrase "employers that intentionally violate the law and knowingly hire illegal aliens" is operative here. Employers who recruit illegals knowingly are headed for trouble. but are there degrees of plausible deniability built into a system that uses staffing companies and labor contractors? Plus, ag employers have no way of identifying legal workers through a bio-metrics card or any other fail-safe means right now.