Just days after federal government officials released nearly 30 employees accused of being in the United States illegally, the Bellingham, Wash. plant that employed them was targeted in a criminal investigation. The investigation may signal a dramatic shift in immigration-
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In February, 28 workers accused of being in the country illegally were detained during a raid by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Yamato Engine Specialists plant in Bellingham, Wash.
Three female employees arrested in the raid were released later that day to care for their children, pending a hearing on their immigration status, according to Community to Community Development, an immigrant-rights group.
The remaining detained Yamato workers were freed on March 26 and have returned to Bellingham. Two employees have already been deported, but the remainder have been released, the organization said.
About a week later, however, on April 2, ICE agents confiscated documents and computers after serving a search warrant at Yamato, as part of a criminal investigation into the company, says Lorie Dankers, ICE spokeswoman.
The investigators, wearing blue ICE windbreakers, carried out several cardboard boxes of documents sealed with tape marked "evidence," loading them into an unmarked dark blue Ford Explorer. They also expected to confiscate some computers, but there have been no arrests, Dankers says.
The investigation into Yamato Engine Specialists is a clear sign of changes to come in immigration enforcement, says Steve Miller, partner with Seattle-based immigration law firm Cowan Miller & Lederman.
"[The investigation] strongly suggests that the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration will be doing what Obama said during the campaign," Miller says. "Rather than target federal efforts at the workers, the target should be the employers who seek to benefit from using undocumented labor."
Shifting the target of enforcement may not be the only change.
In a recent New York Times article, Cecilia Munoz, a senior administration official, said President Barack Obama intends to begin addressing the country's immigration system this year, including looking for a path illegal immigrants can use to become legal.
The president will frame the effort as "policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system," said Munoz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs in the White House, in the article.
Obama, who plans to speak publicly about the issue in May, according to administration officials, may have significant support for the effort among unions. The nation's two major labor federations have agreed for the first time to join forces in the debate over overhauling of the immigration system, according to leaders of the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation.
The organizations recently reached an accord that endorses legalizing the status of illegal immigrants already in the United States, while opposing any extensive new program for employers to bring in temporary immigrant workers, according to officials at both federations.
In 2007, when Congress last weighed significant immigration legislation, the two groups were divided, and the legislation failed.
As for the current system, the Yamato probe underscores problems with the employment-verifica
"The simple truth is that the current I-9 process and E-Verify do not work well," Weems says. "They suffer from document fraud, inaccurate databases and burdensome paperwork and administration requirements.
As a result, legal employees can be denied employment under E-Verify, while illegal workers take advantage of the system to obtain approved status, he says.
Such flaws will be revealed as the Obama administration seeks to take a harder stance against companies using undocumented labor, and employers should take heed, Miller says.
"Part of the giant compromises required for comprehensive immigration reform will be increased enforcement against employers," he says.
"It's going to be increasingly important for employers to ensure that they have taken effective measures to comply with the law, have trained and supervised HR staff and have good I-9 documentation.
April 20, 2009
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