July 1, 2009
Illegal immigration crack down is just a political ploy.

Posted at 7:34 pm, in: Illegal Immigration
Tags: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, John McCain

Obama certainly learned an important lesson in the failure of the Bush Administration’s push for amnesty repackaged as “comprehensive immigration reform”:

In a signal that the Obama administration is changing tactics in dealing with illegal immigration, hundreds of businesses were notified Wednesday that federal authorities will be taking a closer look at their employment records to determine if they are hiring illegal aliens.

Kelly Nantel, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said businesses in every state and industry are being audited, “from agriculture-related businesses, to service businesses, to high-tech industry and everything in between.” The companies were selected based on leads from ICE offices around the country.

On Wednesday, 652 audit notices were issued. By comparison, only 503 such notices were issued in all of fiscal year 2008, according to an agency statement.

The audits are a way to remind businesses that “the integrity of their employment records is an important as the integrity of their tax files or their banking records,” Nantel said. They are also a means of identifying employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Former President George W. Bush’s administration favored another tactic — conducting workplace raids on companies suspected of employing illegals. But the raids were controversial, with critics charging they separated families and disrupted communities.

President Barack Obama has said his strategy will focus on employers, but Nantel said the raids have not been put on hold, although she was not able to provide information on the number of raids or number of illegal immigrants arrested.

Businesses who Wednesday received notice of an audit will have three days to produce I-9 forms for every employee. The form requires employers to review and record each individual’s identity documents and determine whether the documents appear to be genuine. ICE agents and auditors will inspect the forms looking for missing and suspect documents, and cases of identity theft. Violations could lead to criminal or administrative penalties against employers or employees, or a full-blown ICE investigation.

“This is one of the more powerful tools we have to help push a culture of compliance,” said Nantel.

Don’t be fooled by this staged move. Obama has promised comprehensive immigration reform, which means amnesty for millions of illegals (BTW: has his illegally-residing-in-America aunt been kicked out of the country, yet?). Any time a politician uses the term “comprehensive” it means they’re screwing us and America.

When Bush was pushing for his reform the public was outraged. An overwhelming majority of Americans are against granting amnesty to illegal aliens. America has heard the excuse before that if we just let the ones that are already here stay here and then add new laws to keep future waves of illegals out, the problem will be solved. Americans watched how the first amnesty in 1986, under President Reagan’s watch, failed to live up to that promise as 20 years later they heard that promise echoing it’s way back into Washington, DC.

As public opinion turned on the proposed amnesty, Bush decided he had to do something to sway public opinion in favor of the proposed bill. Americans were calling for enforcement of the laws already on the books. So, like any smart politician would do, a rash of highly publicized workplace raids occurred. The government was taking action against illegals and those who hired them! Yay! Cheers went up from the crowd. Unfortunately for those in Washington, the tactic didn’t work. It seems Americans just can’t get behind this notion of awarding the lawbreakers who broke into our country.

Side note: This is amazing if you think about. Americans overwhelmingly against rewarding bad behavior? I guess it’s because most Americans aren’t illegal aliens who broke into our country. Americans seem pretty supportive of rewarding the bad behavior of politicians, irresponsible borrowers who bought houses they couldn’t afford, terrorists who want death to America, people who couldn’t read the fine print on their credit cards, women who unintentionally(?) get pregnant (not that allowing someone to murder a child is a reward, per se, but allowing someone to escape their responsibility is always a reward in some sense), etc. But, I digress.

Obama is stepping up the action and cracking down now as a preemptive measure to minimize the backlash when he proposes his “new” (read: reintroduces what the public shot down four years ago) comprehensive immigration reform. At that point, he’ll be able to say, “Look, I understand the concerns of the American people. That is why we have been cracking down on employers suspected of hiring illegals. That is not enough, though. We still have to answer the question of how to deal with the 13 to 20 million illegal immigrants already in our country. We can’t just start sending people home and breaking up families.”

Well, he won’t say all of that. I doubt he’ll actually acknowledge that their illegals. But, you get the gist of it. This crackdown is just a political ploy to dupe the public. Obama knows the citizenry is getting wise to him (check the polling data) and so he’s starting to employ some Obama-style strategery. I just hope the American pubic is smarter than that and once again let’s Congress know that rewarding these illegals, and thereby encouraging more illegal immigration, is unacceptable. It was unacceptable 20 years ago, four years ago, right now, or 20 years from now.