ICE conducts largest workplace raid in a decade at Texas business

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill



BY AVERY ANAPOL - 04/04/19 08:53 AM EDT

Nearly 300 people were arrested Wednesday in what officials say is the largest workplace immigration raid in a decade.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) authorities arrested over 280 people at CVE Technology Group Inc. and four affiliated companies in Allen, Texas.

In a release, ICE said that the employees were “arrested on administrative immigration violations” for allegedly working illegally at the telecommunications repair company.

The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation into the New Jersey-based company’s alleged hiring of undocumented immigrants, many of whom ICE says were using fraudulent identification documents.

Read more: https://thehill.com/latino/437318-ice-conducts-larges-workplace-raid-in-a-decade-at-texas-business

[keithbvadu2]

1. Raid those republican farmers in Iowa.

[not fooled]

3. Like

the Nunes family farm. That would be a great place to start.

Just another massive example of puke hypocrisy that was virtually ignored by the media.

[link:https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/|]

[watoos]

12. Back when Lou Dobbs was on CNN

and ranting against illegal immigrants, it turns out that an illegal immigrant was tending his daughter's horses.

[DownriverDem]

2. Why don't

they arrest the employers? This is bull.

[Canoe52]

5. +1

[Delmette2.0]

6. #2

The employers pay low wages which is why no on else will work for them. They know what is happening.

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

7. That was my question as well.

I looked for word of the arrest of the company officials who had perpetuated the illegal practice, but did not see it. Companies that knowingly and regularly hire illegal workers are much more culpable in my mind than the workers and should be treated more harshly.

That is a large piece of the illegal immigration puzzle that we seldom hear discussed in Washington.

[Javaman]

15. because the employers are probably republicans. nt

[cstanleytech]

20. A few reasons the main one is $$$$ followed by the fact that illegal immigration is not a truly

major problem but it is a very useful both as a distraction as something to get a base of ignorant voters to rally around by blaming them for the why wages are low or why jobs are scarce.

[Honeycombe8]

4. I've always thought they should go after the employers rather than the employees.

If the jobs didn't exist, not nearly as many immigrants would come illegally. That's the main reason they come. But Republicans have historically not gone after the employers, since they are donors.

Reminder: The Trump Org. just fired a bunch of illegal immigrants working for it.

These employers know the workers are illegal. But as long as they have some fake documentation (if they even have that), the employers hang their hat on that to claim they didn't know. If the worker is deported, he may turn around and come right back, where his old job is waiting for him.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Yeah, but just watch CVE Technologies wiggle out just like the tRump Org has. . . . nt

[Honeycombe8]

16. Of course. As I said, they merely say they didn't know, that the workers had I.D.

Besides, the govt doesn't typically charge the employer for wrongdoing. Only the illegal immigrant. The employers are donors.

[llmart]

18. The federal government is supposed to fine the employer hefty fines if they're caught.

I've sat in many meetings and informational seminars put on by immigration attorneys and USCIS and was even told once that as the person responsible for making sure people were eligible to work in the U.S., I could also be charged if I approved their hiring.

[Honeycombe8]

19. Wow. I've not heard of that. What I know...

when I lived in Dallas, TX, a high illegal immigrant area, I was chatting with the guy who worked for a prominent garden nursery. He was at my house planting a tree for me. He was from Mexico, spoke excellent English. For some reason he told me he'd been deported a couple of times before. He looked to be middle aged, or close to it. I asked him how he ended up back here, since he'd been deported. He said that every time he gets deported, he just comes back, to his same job. He'd been working @ that nursery for years.

So the govt clearly knew that nursery hired illegal immigrants, and that it knew they were illegal, since at least this man had been deported before.

The Trump Org. wasn't fined, either. It has used illegal immigrants off and on for who knows how many decades.

I've never heard of a company being fined.

[llmart]

23. I worked at a farm and a garden center.

I'm an Advanced Master gardener and love plants, so thought it would be a fun place to work. The farm was a smaller operation than the huge garden center. The farm was inherited by two brothers whose father died. They knew all about the farm part of the organization but nothing much about the business end. I was chatting with one of the brothers one day and he started telling me how a federal agent came by their place one day asking to check their records of their employees. They used mostly Mexicans in the fields. I think only the foreman spoke English and then only passably. This owner was so scared because he said the agent told him he could be fined close to $100,000 if he didn't have papers on his workers. He had no idea that I did that sort of thing for my "real" job (I always considered the garden job just a fun job.) and he asked me what to do. All I said was, "Well, don't be surprised if most of your farmhands don't show up for work when you start asking them for their papers." He was a nervous wreck about the possibility of the huge fines and said they would have to close down if that happened. I never found out what the outcome was.

[Honeycombe8]

24. Interesting.

Maybe they just go ahead and put the fear of Jesus in the businesses, but only impose fines for something really egregious. I don't know.

[cstanleytech]

21. Well since its still an ongoing issue I suspect its not enforced much especially I am willing to bet

if the company or owner is a major Repugnant donor.

[llmart]

22. I was told that under Bush they increased the funding for USCIS so they could hire more agents.

I was told to be more diligent in the hiring process because of it. There are specific formulas for the fines they were to issue dependent on what the issue was. For instance, if a company accepted fraudulent documents there would be a certain fine or there would be another fine if you didn't examine documents at all. The regulations are all spelled out on their website and anyone involved in hiring was supposed to be current on those regulations. Even though our legal department told me that the feds were ramping up their enforcement, I never experienced an audit. However, I was quite certain that at least under my watch, everything was in order. After I retired, I doubt anyone else was as conscientious as I was.

[AllaN01Bear]

9. looks like all the prior posters were thinking what i was thinking.:)

i was asking this when ice was the ins .

[watoos]

11. Does this largest ever raid,

include the illegals who worked for the Trump organization?

[jmowreader]

13. Let me guess...

Trump found out this employer of illegals didn’t donate to the Trump campaign this year, and diced ICE on them.

[not fooled]

14. The U.S. used to go after the employers

old bastard raygun stopped, and no one has really done so since.

ronnie wanted undocumented workers to flood the labor market to help bust unions. Mission accomplished! Thom Hartmann repeatedly talks about this.

[BigmanPigman]

17. Fuck that, go to the source...the employers.