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Worksite Enforcement

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Effective worksite enforcement plays an important role in the fight against illegal immigration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has developed a comprehensive worksite enforcement strategy that promotes national security, protects critical infrastructure and targets employers who violate employment laws or engage in abuse or exploitation of workers.

An effective worksite enforcement strategy must address both employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, as well as the workers themselves. In worksite cases, ICE investigators adhere to high investigative standards, including the following:

  • ICE will look for evidence of the mistreatment of workers, along with evidence of trafficking, smuggling, harboring, visa fraud, identification document fraud, money laundering and other such criminal conduct.
  • ICE will obtain indictments, criminal arrests or search warrants, or a commitment from a U.S. Attorney's Office to prosecute the targeted employer before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a worksite.

Critical Infrastructure Protection

In pursuing this strategy, ICE applies risk assessment principles to critical infrastructure and worksite enforcement cases in order to maximize the impact of investigations against the most significant threats and violators. For example, unauthorized workers employed at sensitive sites and critical infrastructure facilities—airports, seaports, nuclear plants, chemical plants and defense facilities—could pose serious homeland security threats. These investigations are given a higher priority.

Targeting Abusive or Exploitative Employers

Worksite enforcement investigations often involve egregious violations of criminal statutes by employers and widespread abuses. Such cases often involve additional violations such as alien smuggling, alien harboring, document fraud, money laundering, fraud or worker exploitation. ICE also investigates employers who employ force, threats or coercion (for example, threatening to have employees deported) in order to keep the unauthorized alien workers from reporting substandard wage or working conditions.

By uncovering such violations, ICE can send a strong deterrent message to other employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens.

Working with Employers

ICE also works with the private sector to educate employers about their responsibilities to hire only authorized workers and how to accurately verify employment eligibility. (Read more about the ICE IMAGE program.)

Recent News

9/13/2012 St Louis, MO St. Louis landscaping business and owner sentenced for employing illegal aliens and visa fraud

9/12/2012 Dubuque, IA Iowa business owner sentenced for conspiring to harbor illegal aliens

9/5/2012 Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles manufacturing company and its owner criminally charged in HSI probe targeting hiring violations

8/20/2012 Milford, MA First New England town partners with ICE

8/8/2012 Newark, NJ New Jersey firm fined more than $600,000 for hiring illegal aliens

7/25/2012 Cleveland, OH Largest domestic preschool and toddler toymaker partners with ICE

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