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U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT
Workplace audits surge Illegal immigrant crackdown shifts to employers By Elliot Spagat A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
WASHINGTON — Immigration officials have sharply increased audits of companies to verify that their employees are authorized to work in the country, signaling the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration is reaching deeper into the workplace to create a “culture of compliance” among employers who rely on immigrant labor. Expansive plans also have been drafted for a long-term push to scruti-
nize employers’ hiring practices more closely. Under a 1986 federal law, companies must verify their employees are authorized to work in the United States by reviewing their documents and verifying to the government the employees’ identity and work authorization. If employers are found to hire someone without proper documents, the employers may be subject to administrative fines and, in some cases, criminal prosecution. The recent focus on employers comes after a
surge of deportation arrests of workers that started immediately after Trump took office in January 2017. The crackdown is likely to please immigration hawks among Trump’s supporters but may alienate industries and companies that rely on immigrant labor. There were 2,282 employer audits opened between Oct. 1 and May 4, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday, nearly a 60 percent jump from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and
September 2017. Many of those reviews were launched following the January ICE audits and employee interviews at about 100 7-Eleven franchises in 17 states. There were 594 employers arrested on criminal immigration charges from Oct. 1 to May 4, up from 139 during the previous fiscal year, and 610 civil immigration charges during the same period, compared to 172 in the preceding 12-months. Derek Benner, head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, told The Associated Press that
Chris Carlson / AP
ICE agents serve an employment audit notice at a 7-Eleven convenience store. Immigration officials have sharply increased audits of companies to verify that their employees are authorized to work in the country.
another nationwide wave of audits planned this summer would push the total “well over” 5,000 by Sept 30. ICE audits peaked at 3,127 in 2013. The agency has developed a plan to open as many as 15,000 audits a year, subject to funding and support for the plan
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from other areas of the administration, Benner said. The proposal calls for creation of an Employer Compliance Inspection Center to perform employer audits at a single location instead of at regional offices around the country, Benner said.
DACA
PINNING CEREMONY HELD FOR GRADUATES
Dreamers face crucial test in court President Trump urges judges to undo policy By Kartikay Mehrotra BL OOMBERG NEWS
Courtesy
LCC honored students graduating with an associate degree in nursing with a pinning ceremony at the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Fine Arts Center.
Over 100 nursing professionals receive associate degrees ZA PATA T I ME S
More than 100 Laredo Community College nursing assistant program student and associate degree nursing program students were honored
during a traditional pinning ceremony recently at the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Fine Arts Center theater at the Fort McIntosh Campus. Graduates from the program included dually
enrolled high school students from Laredo, United and Zapata County independent school districts. The ceremony served as an opportunity for the students to receive their nursing pins from their in-
structors as families and friends cheered their success. List of the graduates for NURA Pinning Ceremony: 1. Mariel E. Aguilar 2. Rosa A. Aguilar LCC continues on A3
Lupus Awareness event hosted by Lions Club Zapata Lions Club set up a booth at the third annual Lupus Awareness event and passed out children's diabetes literature. During the event, the club recruited two possible type I diabetes students for Lions Camp. Courtesy photo
The future of kids brought into the U.S. by their undocumented parents faces a crucial test in a federal appeals court in California. The Trump administration seeks to knock down one of a trio of lower-court decisions that have barred the government from ending the program for so-called Dreamers that allowed the children to stay in the country. On Sept. 5, Trump unveiled a plan to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals by March, an edict that was first blocked in January by a San Francisco federal judge. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is reviewing that ruling at a hearing Tuesday in Pasadena, California. A three-judge panel will hear from from the Justice Department and attorneys representing six Dreamers, four states, two cities and a university. An immediate decision from the judges is unlikely. Undoing the Obama administration’s DACA program has been an evolving policy priority for President Donald Trump over the past year. After initially expressing empathy for beneficiaries threatened with deportation, Trump’s position soured as negotiations with Democrats over a political solution sputtered. Trump administration attorneys are arguing that the Department of Homeland Security exercised its authority to issue policy directives under the purview of the Administrative Procedures Act. Even if the lower court’s decision is upheld, the Trump administration believes the nationwide injunction is “overbroad,” according to court filings. On the Dreamers side, lawyers will continue to claim that Trump’s proposed change in policy threatens imminent harm to about 700,000 DACA beneficiaries. They also will point to the government’s plans to instantly end DACA, instead of applying a notice and comment period. DHS personnel will “deny applications without exception, which would in turn suspend the employment authorizations of hundreds of thousands of people, eliminate their access to advance parole and expose them to arrest and deportation,” according to an appeals court filing by the University of California. That point could become central to the case, since the Obama administration similarly skipped that part of the policy-making process. The government argues that if the former administration avoided the notice period when enacting the program, the current one may may do so when ending it. Twenty entities are supporting the Dreamers, including law professors, former federal immigration agents and historians alleging discriminatory intent behind Trump’s action.