We can blame the non-enforcement of illegal hiring on....drum roll please

[Virginia Dare]

9/11! Yes, that's right, you guessed it kiddies, 9/11 is the reason why the U.S. Government cannot enforce illegal hiring by companies! It all makes sense, though, doesn't it?

Illegal Hiring Is Rarely Penalized
Politics, 9/11 Cited in Lax Enforcement

By Spencer S. Hsu and Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 19, 2006; Page A01

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/18/AR2006061800613.html

[rurallib]

1. About a month ago on the Hannity program

(OK I listen during commercials on AAR). Hannity is going bonkers since he found out that there are some Mexicans coming into America. He cited a report that in Clinton's last year there were over 10,000 citations for businesses hiring aliens who entered the US illegally. By Bush's second year it had fallen to 5 citations.
Fairly sure that was the numbers he quoted.
Sean thought maybe Bush was not doing a good job on this. On everything else he's been perfect, of course.

[bunkerbuster1]

2. The acceptable "Bush-bashing" topic among RWers, for years.

(I put "bush bashing" in quotes because it's their term, not mine.)

In order to assert their alleged independence from this Administration, immigration and perceived laxity in border controls have been free-fire zones since the '04 election. What you report doesn't really surprise me at all.

[Virginia Dare]

3. They know this is going to come back to bite them on the ass..

come election time, which is why they tie the whole 9/11 thing to it. Sickening.