shift_key1Today the field offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will receive user guidelines to implement the Obama administration’s new worksite enforcement strategy.  The new policy instructs agents to target employers and supervisors for prosecution “through the use of carefully planned criminal investigations.”  While the administration intends to continue to arrest undocumented workers in worksite raids, the arrests of these workers will be in efforts to build the case against the employers. 

Under the previous administration, ICE focused on arresting employees, but failed to develop the evidence necessary to show that the business was knowingly hiring undocumented workers except in the most egregious cases.  The new guidelines instruct ICE agents to pursue evidence against the employer before prosecuting the workers.  The goal of this policy shift is to decrease the supply of jobs thereby decreasing the demand for workers.  The belief is that this will eventually lead to a reduction in the number of undocumented individuals living and working in this country.  If implemented as planned, the arrests of employers and others in the supervisory chain of command will dramatically increase from the previous administration. 

Additional information can be found here.