ICE Has Changed Strategy Under the Obama Administration

With Comprehensive Immigration Reform next on the National Agenda, it is important to understand how ICE has changed its strategy under the Obama Administration:

1. Target Felonious Criminals instead of Workers

2. Rigorously target Exploitive Employers to stop them from establishing and maintaining exploitive worksites, thereby eliminating the need for inhumane workplace ICE Raids and costly, inhumane detention centers.

3. Reward Employers for using e-verify.

These changes have been effective in enforcement, reducing crime, increasing safety, while being humane. We can expect more of the same with any Immigration Reform legislation under the Obama administration.

1. Targeting Felonious Criminals:
SEATTLE — Deportations of illegal immigrants with criminal records from Alaska, Oregon, and Washington this past year spiked by nearly 40 percent, while overall removals dropped for the first time in five years, according to new data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The data, from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009, shows that 10,793 people were deported from the Pacific Northwest, a drop of 117 compared to the previous year.
That marks the first time in the last five years that deportations from the Northwest have dropped. Deportations had increased from more than 4,000 in 2005 to nearly 11,000 in 2008.
But removals of people with criminal records went from more than 3,100 to nearly 4,500 between 2008 and 2009 — a jump of 39.7 percent. Since 2005, criminal removals have more than doubled.The data "illustrates pretty vividly the priority we're placing on the removal of criminal aliens," ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said. "We believe it's the best way to enhance public safety."

2. Targeting Exploitive Employers

WASHINGTON — Immigration enforcement officials said Thursday that they were expanding a program for auditing companies that hired and exploited illegal immigrants and had notified 1,000 companies this week that they would have to undergo such a review. John Morton, who heads Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, announced the new initiative, saying it was part of the administration’s plan to deal with companies that hire illegal workers. “ICE is focused on finding and penalizing employers who believe they can unfairly get ahead by cultivating illegal workplaces,” Mr. Morton said.

3. Reward Use of E-Verify

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of Homeland Security, urged American consumers to favor companies that make efforts to ensure that they do not hire illegal immigrants. To that end, Ms. Napolitano said that her department was permitting companies that use a new computerized system to check the legal status of employees to feature a special logo on their products and ads saying “I E-Verify.”The E-Verify campaign allows employers to match a prospective candidate’s name against a database that combines several government lists, including Social Security, passport and border information. The first audit conducted by ICE covered 654 companies and resulted in the filing of formal notices to seek a fine from 61. ICE officials said they were considering seeking fines from an additional 267 companies from that first audit. An audit consists of ICE officials checking each worker’s Employee Eligibility Verification Form, known as an I-9, to determine what steps were taken to confirm the person was eligible to be hired. If irregularities are found, the companies may then be fined for lax monitoring. The strategy is part of the Obama administration’s effort to reduce illegal immigration by forcing companies to fire unauthorized workers rather than by conducting raids at the workplace, actions that are often accompanied by great personal trauma, including deportation and the dividing of immigrant families.