Bush’s lax enforcement of immigration employment laws

June 19, 2006

As part of his new-found interest in immigration policy, the president has vowed a crackdown on employers who ignore existing law and hire undocumented immigrants, under the notion that fewer job opportunities will mean fewer immigrants.

But as the WaPo noted, Bush hasn’t exactly cared about this until very recently.

The Bush administration, which is vowing to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal workers, virtually abandoned such employer sanctions before it began pushing to overhaul U.S. immigration laws last year, government statistics show.

Between 1999 and 2003, work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently was merged into the Homeland Security Department. The number of employers prosecuted for unlawfully employing immigrants dropped from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003, and fines collected declined from $3.6 million to $212,000, according to federal statistics.

In 1999, the United States initiated fines against 417 companies. In 2004, it issued fine notices to three.

Now, I understand the broader dynamic here. For the last five years, the White House has had to decide between business interests who want to utilize immigrant labor, and the far-right GOP base, who wants to crack down on immigration. Given the choice, the Bush gang has sided with the prior.

But in the abstract, I have to wonder what Republican activists think of the fact that Bush fined three companies in 2004 for violating immigration law, while Clinton fined 417 companies in 1999. That has to be a tough pill to swallow.

As you say CB, they are an unnatural alliance, Know-Nothings and Business Interests.

This article was delightful. I’m saving the whole thing for later to put a nice glow on the evening.

But one point you should not miss is that this is one of the problems caused by the Bushite organization of the DHS and the focus on pork-barreling security funds.

  • “…while Clinton fined 417 companies in 1999. That has to be a tough pill to swallow.”

    But Clinton had sex with an intern.

  • By any objective criteria, Clinton was the best Republican President since Eisenhower. His whole Administration was a tough pill to swallow, for both parties.

    The truth about the Republican Party, though, is that their “philosophy” and rhetoric is all just for show, it is all empty symbolism. The foundations of Republican politics are greed and stupid resentment.

    There are no real principles involved, and so it doesn’t matter to Republicans if the rhetoric of fiscal conservatism is followed by record deficits, or if “law and order” entails overturning the rule of law.

  • I have to wonder what Republican activists think of the fact that Bush fined three companies in 2004 for violating immigration law, while Clinton fined 417 companies in 1999.

    “See, proof that clinton was anti-business. this is just the flip side of the raise-taxes coin that liberals use to make every decision.”

    at least that’s my best guess as to what republican’ts would say

  • CB – you are such a cynic. Did you ever stop to consider that the reason Clinton fined 417 companies and Bush only 3 is that, under the Bush administration, there simply weren’t as many violations? They run a tight ship over there, you know?

  • I have to wonder what Republican activists think of the fact that Bush fined three companies in 2004 for violating immigration law, while Clinton fined 417 companies in 1999.

    Operative word: “think”

    They won’t.

    The business interests are pretty confident that the party will use the immigration issue to stir up the crazies and racists, all the while doing absolutely nothing to actually enforce employment laws. And they can count on the media not to point out to the morons the lack of enforcement by the Bush administration

    Instead, we’ll all be focusing our attention on our very own big, hugely expensive but ultimately useless “Berlin Wall” along the Mexican border (erected at great cost and no oversight by Halliburton, and staffed by Custer Battles no doubt)

  • the far-right GOP base, who wants to crack down on immigration

    Actually, a majority of Americans – left, right, and center – oppose illegal immigration. And, there’s a big difference between cracking down on “immigration” and opposing a massive increase in legal immigration that would lead to 500 million or so Americans some time around mid-century. In a recent poll, only 2% (two percent) said they thought immigration levels were too low.

    I have to wonder what Republican activists think of the fact that Bush fined three companies in 2004 for violating immigration law, while Clinton fined 417 companies in 1999

    Well, I’m not a “Republican activist”, but if you haven’t seen conservative sites pointing that out before, then perhaps you haven’t been following the issue that closely.

  • I have to wonder what Republican activists think of the fact that Bush fined three companies in 2004 for violating immigration law, while Clinton fined 417 companies in 1999.

    One can find 417 firms or individuals hiring illegal aliens in any 3 county area of Eastern Kentucky. The problem is a 5-alarm fire. Clinton used a fire extinguisher, Bush uses a squirt gun. So what? This is bi-partisan neglect. Immigration reform is and will be a charade regardless of who controls the Federal Government. Until business owners, managers, and proprietors start paying serious fines and serving time, the fire will continue to roar.

  • I heard a commentator on one of the Air America broadcasts last night saying that “We don’t have an illegal immigrant problem. We have an illegal employer problem,” and it was created by the Bush administration’s cuts to enforcement in response to lobbying by the business community. He went on to say that if there were enforcement to the extent that illegals found it difficult to get work, they would not stay, and eventually, would not attempt to immigrate here. But as long as the jobs are availalble, and as long as employers can hire off the books at low wages with impunity, we’ll have a problem. And it’s the administration’s fault.

    He suggested that whenever immigration is raised as a political wedge issue, that Democrats label it the “Illegal Employer problem.” I think that’s a resonable response to the right’s baseless smears.

  • This lecture by Minister Eric Muhammad speaks powerfully to the issue of illegal immigration and ties the Duke rape case and the Cynthia Mckinney incident with it to place it within the larger context of America’s race problem.

    It has been removed by THE WHITE MAN due to, we assume, the number of people downloading it and complaints concerning it. We do not know how long it will take for them to delete it again. Get it while you can.

    THE BLACK…WHITE…PROBLEM IN AMERICA 4/16/06

    THIS LECTURE IS 5.90MB IN SIZE. WITH HIGH SPEED INTERNET, IT WILL TAKE ONLY SECONDS TO DOWNLOAD. WITH DIAL-UP IT COULD TAKE UP TO AN HOUR.

    CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO BEGIN DOWNLOAD.

    http://www.zshare.net/download/the-black-white-problem-in-america-4-16-06-wma.html

    MUHAMMAD’S TEMPLE # 15

    ATLANTA, GA.

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