Federal agents with the Homeland Security Investigations Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement tossed a net over nearly 300 illegal aliens yesterday during a raid on a technology company in Allen, Texas.
The good news comes on top of some data from ICE-HSI that show the Trump administration is cracking down on border-jumpers stealing jobs from Americans.
But then President Trump rained on the immigration-patriot parade.
He won’t close the border with Mexico after all, as he twice threatened to do last week if Mexico didn’t stop the flow of drugs and Central American “migrants” across the border.
It’s a Raid!
HSI executed search warrants at CVE Technology Group Inc., and four of CVE’s staffing companies, ICE reported. The agency “arrested on administrative immigration violations more than 280 CVE company employees who were unlawfully working in the United States at this telecommunications equipment-repair business.”
HSI began looking at CVE after receiving “multiple tips” about its massive illegal-alien workforce. ICE reported that “many of the individuals employed at CVE were using fraudulent identification documents. In January 2019, HSI began an audit of CVE’s I-9 Forms, which confirmed numerous hiring irregularities.”
You know what that means. Cheap labor for a cheap employer who didn’t want to pay real Americans a decent wage.
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Unhappily, ICE will interview the border-jumping job-stealers “to record any medical, sole-caregiver or other humanitarian situations. Based on these interviews, ICE will determine if those arrested remain in custody or are considered for humanitarian release. In all cases, all illegal aliens encountered will be fingerprinted and processed for removal from the United States.”
Maybe, but how likely is it the agency can keep track of this crew?
That question aside, the agency noted that “unauthorized workers often use stolen identities of legal U.S. workers, which can profoundly damage for years the identity-theft victim’s credit, medical records and other aspects of their everyday life.”
That, apparently, didn’t much worry the executives at CVE.
Enforcement 2018
Last year, ICE reported that workplace enforcement — “criminal investigations, business audits and arrests” — “surged” from 2017:
HSI opened 6,848 worksite investigations compared to 1,691 in FY17; initiated 5,981 I-9 audits compared to 1,360; and made 779 criminal and 1,525 administrative worksite-related arrests compared to 139 and 172, respectively; all of these categories surged by 300 to 750 percent over the previous fiscal year.
Among the “high-profile” actions were the arrest of 104 border-jumpers who worked at a slaughterhouse in Bean Station, Tennessee. The owner faces prison time and fines for tax fraud, wire fraud, and hiring illegals. He also owed $1.4 million in restitution before sentencing.
In August, HSI nailed agricultural companies in Nevada, Nebraska, and Minnesota for workplace violations that involved criminal arrest warrants for 17 persons “connected to an alleged criminal conspiracy to exploit illegal alien laborers for profit, fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.”
The same month, HSI collared 160 illegals, many using the stolen identities of Americans, during raid on a trailer maker in Sumner, Texas.
Trump Bails
But Trump caved on his threat to close the border if Mexico doesn’t stop the drugs and “migrants” from entering the United States.
“Mexico must use its very strong immigration laws to stop the many thousands of people trying to get into the USA,” he tweeted on March 30. “Our detention areas are maxed out & we will take no more illegals. Next step is to close the Border!”
The day before, he tweeted that “If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration … I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week.”
Not anymore, the New York Times reported. Instead, Mexico faces tariffs.
“The only thing, frankly, better and less drastic than closing the border is tariff the cars coming in, and I will do it,” Trump told reporters, the Times reported. “I don’t play games.”
“If the drugs don’t stop or aren’t largely stopped, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars — the whole ballgame is cars,” he said. “And if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.”
Why did Trump surrender? As the Times reported, “nearly $1.7 billion of goods and services flow across the United States-Mexico border every day, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. About 500,000 legal workers, students, shoppers and tourists also cross the border on a daily basis.”
Wobble-kneed GOP senators such as Mitch McConnell didn’t like the idea.
So, the border stays open. And the drugs and “migrants” will keep coming.
