[Rhodes22-list] Reduce your federal income tax (political humor)

[Bill Effros]

Gregg,

I think you are missing the point that, as an employer I legally hire 
illegals.  If the government were serious about this, they could know in 
a fraction of a second that the social security number submitted to me 
by the illegal is bogus.  Every week I send the social security 
administration money linked to these "papers" which they know doesn't 
really match up with anyone.  But they want the money, so they do nothing.

If you really think enforcement of existing laws is working in the 
Greater Cincinnati area, you really don't understand the magnitude of 
the problem.

Bill Effros

Gregg J. MacMillan wrote:
> Just enforce existing laws...it's amazing how well this concept seems 
> to be working in the Greater Cincinnati area.
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Fischer Homes feels sting of 'get tough' approach
>
> By Michael Collins
> Post Washington Bureau
>
> NEARLY 100 PEOPLE FACING CHARGES
> Nearly 100 people have now been charged in an ongoing investigation 
> into the use of illegal immigrants in the Northern Kentucky 
> home-building industry
>
> Most face charges of being in the United States illegally, but nearly 
> two dozen others face charges of harboring the men by providing them 
> with jobs and places to live.
>
> Four Fischer Homes supervisors - Tim Copsy, William Allison, Bill Ring 
> and Doug Witt - have been charged with harboring illegal workers by 
> providing them jobs. The men, who face up to 10 years in prison, have 
> pleaded innocent and are free on bail.
>
> Fischer Homes has denied that the company or any of its employees have 
> done anything wrong.
>
>
> WASHINGTON - Not long ago, whenever federal authorities caught 
> employers hiring illegal immigrants, they usually dealt with the 
> problem by slapping the company with a stiff fine.
> But when agents raided four Northern Kentucky construction sites 
> operated by Fischer Homes last month, they took a tougher approach. 
> They arrested four supervisors and dozens of undocumented workers and 
> charged them with crimes.
> The criminal charges reflect a dramatic shift in the federal 
> government's strategy for cracking down on employers who hire illegal 
> immigrants. Officials say employers take the threat of criminal 
> charges much more seriously than fines, which were often reduced 
> during negotiations.
> "More robust criminal cases against unscrupulous employers are a much 
> more effective deterrent than levying administrative fines," said Gail 
> Montenegro, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs 
> Enforcement agency.
> "We find that the prospect of 10 years in federal prison or federal 
> forfeiture carries much sharper teeth, and that is the future of our 
> worksite enforcement efforts."
> The government initiated the get-tough approach after the Immigration 
> and Naturalization Service was terminated in 2003 and most of its 
> responsibilities were transferred to three agencies within the newly 
> created Department of Homeland Security.
> One of those agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement - or ICE - 
> is responsible for immigration and customs laws inside the United States.
> Immigration and Customs Enforcement is conducting far more criminal 
> investigations than the old Immigration and Naturalization Service, 
> which tended to rely on administrative fines as a sanction against 
> companies caught hiring illegal workers.
> Such fines were matters between the employer and the Immigration and 
> Naturalization Service and were not governed by the courts.
> Authorities say criminal investigations are more effective because 
> defendants can now be convicted in court and face the possibility of 
> prison time. Even if a case is settled, the agreement could still fall 
> under the court's jurisdiction.
> That is significant because it means that payments would be mandatory 
> and that other stipulations could be included in the settlement, such 
> as requiring that a company put internal procedures in place to comply 
> with the law.
> Before the policy shift, illegal worker arrests had fallen off 
> dramatically, from 2,849 in 1999 to 445 in 2003, according to a report 
> by the government's General Accounting Office.
> The following year, however, those numbers began to climb - jumping to 
> 845 in 2004 and 1,145 in 2005. This year alone, more than 2,100 people 
> have been arrested. And those numbers don't include the arrests in the 
> Fischer Homes investigation or several other raids that took place 
> last month.
> In the criminal cases, the government typically brings charges of 
> knowingly hiring illegal aliens and, whenever possible, of money 
> laundering and harboring illegal aliens. Money laundering is a felony 
> punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while harboring illegal aliens 
> carries a potential 10-year prison sentence.
> Those charges also give authorities the right to seize assets that 
> employers have derived from criminal activities.
> "It is good to see that they are making an attempt to enforce the 
> law," said Caroline Espinosa, spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, which is 
> pushing for tougher immigration enforcement. "Sometimes, fines aren't 
> enough."
> Fines were considered just another cost of doing business and 
> especially palatable to employers because they were offset by the 
> savings from employing illegal aliens, "in most cases, at a much lower 
> wage than they would be paying American citizens," Espinosa said.
> "Breaking this law actually hurts more people than most people 
> realize," she said, because "it drives down wages for American 
> citizens as well."
> Columbus, Ohio, attorney David Cook, who specializes in 
> employment-based immigration issues, said that while criminal charges 
> are a deterrent to hiring undocumented workers, he thinks the recent 
> raids are part of a bigger strategy to build support for the Bush 
> administration's proposed guest worker program.
> "I think the way they see the opportunity to build support for that is 
> to show that they are getting tough on the unauthorized workers and on 
> worksite enforcement," said Cook.
> Many employers make a good-faith effort to comply with immigration 
> laws, Cook said, but find the process used to verify a worker's 
> identity and work authorization is cumbersome and difficult to do 
> correctly.
> For example, the Department of Homeland Security has changed the type 
> of documents that an individual can present for identification 
> purposes and to verify work authorization. Yet, "they continue to 
> publish and provide a form that has the old list of documents," Cook 
> said. "They've never bothered to update their forms."
> Employers "need to be educated as to what the law is and come to an 
> understanding of how the government is applying the law," he said.