About Freakin' Time

The 'crack-down' on employers who knowingly hire illegals started yesterday. I just want to know what took so long.

The apprehension on Wednesday of more than 1,100 illegal immigrants employed by a pallet supply company based in Houston, as well as the arrest of seven of its managers, represented the start of a more aggressive federal crackdown on employers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

Why hadn't this started earlier?

An examination of the company's payroll of 5,800 employees found that just over half of them had Social Security numbers that were either invalid, belonged to a dead person or did not match names on file, the department said.

The investigation started in February 2005, when agents received a tip that IFCO Systems workers in Guilderland, N.Y., were seen ripping up federal tax-related employment verification forms, and then an assistant manager present explained that they were illegal immigrants who did not intend to file tax returns.

No senior executives at the company were arrested, but officials filed criminal charges against seven current or former lower-level managers and a foreman. The supervisors, from New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Texas, were accused of conspiring to transport, harbor and induce illegal immigrants to come to the United States, charges that carry maximum sentences of up to 10 years in jail.

I've heard that part of the reason for the problem with enforcement was related to access to IRS records which would show fraudulent workers. I wonder how true that is and what has changed to allow access now.

I'm also wondering why only low level managers are being prosecuted. You'd think by how the Democrats yelp about the President's failures on policy when a soldier does something out of whack that the company CEO should have been arrested. But then, take a look for Democratic responses to this in the MSM. I only found one related to Reid and none for Obama who on a Fox News report attributed only 10 arrests to the actions. (A google news search returned a bunch of hits on topic but only one on Reid's comments and no hits on Obama at the time of this post.)

Reaction to the raids reflected the well-drawn lines in the debate. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement, "A photo-op crackdown by [the Bush administration's Homeland Security Department] to prove a political point won't erase its failed record."

Sorry Harry, this is a good thing irrespective of when it happened. I'm certain though that you'll be seeing this called the oppression of immigrants shortly.

It's a start, now let's hope they actually keep up the enforcement.