The last major change in immigration law, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, is best remembered for providing a path to citizenship for an estimated 3 million mostly Hispanic people who had lived in the shadows for years. has been done. But the most controversial provision was one that for the first time imposes criminal and civil penalties on employers who knowingly hire workers who are not legally in the country.
Previously, harboring illegal immigrants was a felony, but the 1952 Texas Proviso made it illegal to employ illegal immigrants. The 1986 law provided for civil penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers and criminal penalties, including prison terms, for employers who demonstrate a “pattern or practice” of violations.
But data from Syracuse University shows that such penalties are rarely imposed. By comparison, there were nearly 1,300 cases in which immigrants were charged with illegal entry, and more than 6,000 cases in which immigrants were charged with what the law describes as “bringing and residence of certain aliens.”
Minor penalties for employers are also rare. Civil penalties may range from $250 per employee to $10,000 per employee. Criminal penalties can reach $50,000 per employee. But criminal and civil penalties totaled just $23 million in fiscal year 2022, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s annual report to Congress. Annual numbers vary widely, but they certainly represent a small portion of the violations that occur.
Employers therefore have little fear of paying the price for breaking the law. The vast majority of government resources have always been spent on securing borders rather than enforcing them in the workplace.
why is that? Two decades after its enactment, the authors of the 1986 bill, former Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) and former Rep. Romano L. Mazzoli (D-Ky.) wrote the following: Federal budget resources are never enough. The other is that both governments are loathe to disrupt economic activity: the supply of labor for factories, farms, and businesses. And we know that disruptions in labor supply are a natural, inevitable, and even desirable outcome of strong enforcement at borders and workplaces. ”
In 2017, then-President Donald Trump commuted the 27-year prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of what was once the nation’s largest kosher meat processing plant. In 2008, a major immigration raid on a family-run slaughterhouse in Iowa rounded up 389 undocumented immigrants, some as young as 13, who had complained of appalling working conditions. (However, his conviction was for financial fraud.)
The White House said in a statement that the clemency for Mr. Rubashkin “reached across the political spectrum,” including then-House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Republican Orrin G. Hatch. (Utah), then-Senate President Pro Tempore.
It can be difficult for recruiters to determine whether the documents submitted by job seekers are valid. Undocumented workers often create false papers and documents borrowed from others. (In 2019, the Post reported that President Trump’s own business relied on illegal labor. The report was based on interviews with nearly 50 current and former employees.)
But few employers are even taking advantage of the best tools available. Of the nation’s estimated 6 million employers, less than one in six uses E-Verify, the government’s free online system that allows employers to verify employees’ eligibility to work in the country. is. Congress has refused to make it mandatory.
Heavy-handed enforcement could simply encourage more migrants to go underground. That means they work on the books, pay no taxes, and receive no insurance. That would “lower wages and working conditions for everyone,” said Julia Gerratt, deputy director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.
Yet, as long as immigration policy remains highly biased, imposing penalties on those who enter the country illegally but little on those who employ them, we will not be able to actually address the forces driving today’s chaos. It’s hard to imagine a solution to that.
It’s notable that business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have long called for a more comprehensive immigration overhaul, including opening new avenues for foreign workers to legally meet the needs of U.S. employers. worth it. The court also supports mandatory use of E-Verify.
Lawmakers must recognize that while there are solutions to the problem of illegal immigration, they cannot begin and end with border walls and razor wire.