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posted July 24, 2009
Homeland Security Makes Huge Shift on Workplace Enforcement
Following ICE raid in Bellingham, new rules are part of commitment to immigration reform
by Naomi Ishisaka, OneAmerica
After months of activism and advocacy by OneAmerica and other immigrant right groups nationwide, the Department of Homeland Security released sweeping new guidelines on April 30 to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on workplace enforcement of immigration law. The new rules came the day after President Obama renewed his commitment to moving comprehensive immigration reform in his first year in office during a prime-time news conference.
The new guidelines come as a direct result of the Feb. 24 ICE raid in Bellingham, Wash., where 28 women and men were arrested and detained at the Yamato Engine Specialists. Following aggressive and immediate organizing from immigrant rights organizations, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pledged an investigation into the raids.
“The new guidelines are an important step in the right direction,” said Pramila Jayapal, Executive Director of OneAmerica. “They raise the standards of evidence needed to conduct raids and focus on unscrupulous employers rather than on vulnerable workers.”
At a news conference on Wednesday night, President Obama said the broken immigration system is “not good for anybody.”
The new guidelines include:
• Instead of blanket raids targeting workers, ICE will target employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. The guidelines say, “ICE must prioritize the criminal prosecution of actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers because such employers are not sufficiently punished or deterred by the arrest of their illegal work force.”
• Cases against employers will be built through carefully built criminal investigations. Agents are instructed to “obtain indictments, criminal arrest or search warrants, or a commitment from a US attorney’s office to prosecute the targeted employer, before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a work site.”
• Humanitarian concerns—such as a sickness or being the primary caregiver for a child—must be considered in raids of companies with 25 employees or more, in contrast to previous rules requiring it with 150 employees or more.•