Napolitano signals shift in worksite raids
By STEWART M. POWELL
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
Jan. 15, 2009, 11:49PM
WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Homeland Security Department signaled a shift in focus on worksite immigration raids, from targeting undocumented immigrants to pursuing what she called “unscrupulous employers.”
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano unveiled the first details of the Obama administration’s approach while testifying Thursday at her Senate confirmation hearings.
Federal immigration agents would intercept illegal immigrants at the border, Napolitano said, and would continue raiding businesses where they work.
But she said the Obama administration also would target employers who hire the immigrants on the gamble that their businesses won’t be raided.
“If confirmed,” she said in written responses to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, “I will take a close look at the design and operation of worksite enforcement actions to ensure that the focus is on unscrupulous employers.”
She pledged to subject employer violators to “appropriate criminal punishment” and to encourage employers to work with federal immigration agents “to establish sound compliance programs that prevent unlawful hiring.”
Asked what changes she would implement, Napolitano wrote: “I expect to increase the focus on ensuring that employers of unlawful workers are prosecuted for their violations.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the panel, forecast Senate confirmation for Napolitano immediately after Obama’s inauguration next Tuesday amid praise by Democrats and Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
A series of dramatic worksite raids across the country by armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — including raids in Texas — has sparked widespread controversy, particularly among immigrant rights’ advocates who claim that workers face penalties such as deportation while business owners get off scot-free.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/6214449.html
