Feds shift gears on illegal immigration

— -- The Department of Homeland Security is changing the way it tackles illegal immigration, in many cases remaking or rescinding Bush administration policies.

The changes put heavier emphasis on employers, including more investigations of hiring records and fines for violations, says John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in DHS.

"We have to come to grips with the market for illegal labor," he says. "To get there, we have to move beyond individual cases."

The arrests of hundreds of illegal workers at a time in raids at factories and meatpacking plants were a visible component of President George W. Bush's immigration enforcement strategy.

The largest workplace raid under the Obama administration was in February, when 28 illegal immigrants were arrested at an engine manufacturer in Bellingham, Wash.

Guidelines issued since then make it clear that raids targeting employees won't be a priority. The agency still will arrest illegal immigrants as it conducts investigations, Morton says, but "we are going to place our focus … first and foremost on the employer."

On July 1, ICE notified 652 businesses that it would inspect their hiring records to make sure they verified their workers' legal status, and Morton says the push will expand. ICE began 503 such audits in all of last year.

Other changes:

• DHS announced on July 8 that it would rescind a Bush proposal to crack down on businesses that don't fire workers whose Social Security numbers don't match government records. The plan, tied up by court challenges, never went into effect.

The agency said it will move ahead with another Bush plan to require businesses with federal contracts to verify the legal status of employees using an online government database. The DHS says the system will catch inconsistencies earlier.

The department estimates that the rule will cover 3.8 million employees.

• Two days later, DHS announced new standards for a program that gives authority to enforce immigration laws to state and local law enforcement agencies that sign agreements with the department and undergo training. The revised contracts direct police to focus mainly on illegal immigrants who are already in jail or have been convicted or arrested in drug or violent crimes, not those involved in minor offenses such as traffic violations.