Let's review a few basics first. Immigrants have enhanced America. Immigrants and illegal aliens are neither inherently good nor inherently bad. Legal immigrants come to America with the explicit approval of Congress and thus all Americans. Illegal aliens come here with an implicit 'blind eye' approval. Thus, illegal immigration problems are due essentially to inaction of Congress, law enforcement, and ultimately American citizens. To fix our dysfunctional immigration system, Americans need to educate and change legal, political, educational, environmental, labor and religious institutions. Over-immigration is not inevitable nor is the doubling of U.S. population this century that it will cause.
Legal immigrants deserve respect. Illegal aliens are law breakers who do not deserve jobs, amnesty, educational subsidies, driver's licenses, and other benefits at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Illegal aliens first should be encouraged to Go Home voluntarily and then humanely deported as the law requires. Once the public recognizes that jobs and benefits equal encouragement the public will truly press for the flow to cease. Amnesties for illegal aliens have clearly made the problem worse and should be vigorously opposed. See the National Review for an excellent article on amnesties.
Unfortunately many Americans do not honestly debate immigration policy because they are woefully ignorant of the facts, especially on the negative effects of mass migration. There are upwards of 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. today. Immigration today is almost quadruple the traditional level. Immigration has accounted for over 70% of U.S. population growth since 1970. See chart. Immigration has contributed significantly to school overcrowding, traffic congestion, the health care crisis, environmental degradation, social tension, and other negative impacts on our country. Yet pro-mass migration forces, including the politically correct media, cheap labor advocates and ethnic pandering politicians, rarely acknowledge the down-side of mass migration. See the internet sites listed in National Sites for unadulterated information describing negative mass migration impacts because generally the media fails to do so. For example, school overcrowding is usually blamed on "The Baby Boom Echo", but the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) recently released a shocking and enlightening report on the real reason behind school overcrowding: No Room To Learn: Immigration and School Overcrowding. Consider distributing or presenting the report to your local school board. How often is our health care crisis attibuted to mass migration? Rarely if ever. Because the costs of mass migration have long been ignored by the media and politicians a huge dose of honest debate on the negative impacts of mass migration is long overdue.
Myths about immigration abound. Often those favoring immigration reduction are called racist or anti-immigrant but the truth is nearly all immigration reductionists favor immigration and immigrants, but at a drastically reduced level.
The Law Against Hiring or Harboring Illegal Aliens
The following is an overview of federal law on hiring and harboring illegal aliens. It is not a substitute for professional legal counsel in specific situations.
Summary
A person (including a group of persons, business, organization or local government) commits a federal felony when he:
assists an alien whom he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him to obtain employment,
encourages that alien to remain in the U.S., by referring him to an employer, by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.
Penalties upon conviction include criminal fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture of vehicles and real property used to commit the crime.
Anyone employing or contracting with an illegal alien without verifying his work authorization status is guilty of a misdemeanor. Aliens and employers violating immigration laws are subject to arrest, detention, and seizure of their vehicles or property. In addition, individuals or entities who engage in racketeering enterprises that commit (or conspire to commit) immigration-related felonies are subject to private civil suits for treble damages and injunctive relief.
Recruitment and Employment of Illegal Aliens
It is unlawful to hire an alien, to recruit an alien, or to refer an alien for a fee, knowing the alien is unauthorized to work in the United States.1 It is equally unlawful to continue to employ an alien knowing that the alien is unauthorized to work.2 Employers may give preference in recruitment and hiring to a U.S. citizen over an alien with work authorization only where the U.S. citizen is equally or better qualified.3
It is unlawful to hire an individual for employment in the United States without complying with employment eligibility verification requirements.4 Requirements include examination of identity documents and completion of Form I-9 for every employee hired. Employers must retain all I-9s, and, with 3 days advance notice, they must be made available for inspection.
Employment includes any service or labor performed for any type of remuneration within the United States, with the exception of sporadic domestic service by an individual in a private home.5 Day laborers or other casual workers engaged in any compensated activity (with the above exception) are employees for purposes of immigration law.6
An employer includes an agent or anyone acting directly or indirectly in the interest of the employer. For purposes of verification of authorization to work, employer also means an independent contractor, or a contractor other than the person using the alien labor.7 The use of temporary or short-term contracts cannot be used to circumvent the employment authorization verification requirements.8
If employment is to be for less than the usual three days allowed for completing the I-9 Form requirement, the form must be completed immediately at the time of hire.9
An employer has constructive knowledge that an employee is an illegal unauthorized worker if a reasonable person would infer it from the facts.10 Constructive knowledge constituting a violation of federal law has been found where (1) the I-9 employment eligibility form has not been properly completed, including supporting documentation, (2) the employer has learned from other individuals, media reports, or any source of information available to the employer, that the alien is unauthorized to work, or (3) the employer acts with reckless disregard for the legal consequences of permitting a third party to provide or introduce an illegal alien into the employer’s work force.11 Knowledge cannot be inferred solely on the basis of an individual’s accent or foreign appearance. Actual specific knowledge is not required. For example, a newspaper article stating that ballrooms depend on an illegal alien workforce of dance hostesses was held by the courts to be a reasonable ground for suspicion that unlawful conduct had occurred.12
It is illegal for non-profit and religious organizations to knowingly assist an employer to violate employment sanctions, regardless of claims that their convictions require them to assist aliens.13 Harboring or aiding illegal aliens is not protected by the First Amendment.14
It is a felony to establish a commercial enterprise for the purpose of evading any provision of federal immigration law. Violators may be fined or imprisoned for up to 5 years.15
Encouraging and Harboring Illegal Aliens
It is a violation of law for any person to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection in any place, including any building or means of transportation, any alien who is in the United States in violation of law.16 Harboring means any conduct that tends to substantially facilitate an alien to remain in the U.S. illegally.17 The sheltering need not be clandestine, and harboring covers aliens arrested outdoors, as well as in a building. This provision includes harboring an alien who entered the U.S. legally, but has since lost his legal status.
An employer can be convicted of the felony of harboring illegal aliens who are his employees if he takes actions in reckless disregard of their illegal status, such as ordering them to obtain false documents, altering records, obstructing INS inspections, or taking other actions that facilitate the alien’s illegal employment.18 Any person who within any 12-month period hires ten or more individuals with actual knowledge that they illegal aliens or unauthorized workers is guilty of felony harboring. 19
It is also a felony to encourage or induce an alien to come to or reside in the U.S. knowing or recklessly disregarding the fact that the alien’s entry or residence is in violation of the law.20 This crime applies to any person, rather than just employers of illegal aliens. Courts have ruled that “encouraging” includes counseling illegal aliens to continue working in the U.S. or assisting them to complete applications with false statements or obvious “errors”.21 The fact that the alien is a refugee fleeing persecution is not a defense to this felony, since U.S. law and the UN Protocol on Refugees both require that a refugee must report to immigration authorities “without delay” upon entry to the U.S.
The penalty for felony harboring is a fine and imprisonment for up to five years. The penalty for felony alien smuggling is a fine and up to ten years imprisonment. Where the crime causes serious bodily injury or places the life of any person in jeopardy, the penalty is a fine and up to 20 years imprisonment. If the criminal smuggling or harboring results in the death “of any person,” the penalty can include life imprisonment. Convictions for aiding, abetting, or conspiracy to commit alien smuggling or harboring, carry the same penalties. 22 Courts can impose consecutive prison sentences for each alien smuggled or harbored.23 A court may order a convicted smuggler to pay restitution if the alien smuggled qualifies as a “victim” under the Victim and Witness Protection Act.24
Conspiracy to commit the crimes of sheltering, harboring, or employing illegal aliens is a separate federal offense punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or five years imprisonment.25
Enforcement
A person or entity having knowledge of a violation or potential violation of employer sanctions provisions may submit a signed written complaint to the INS office with jurisdiction over the business or residence of the potential violator, whether an employer, employee, or agent. The complaint must include the names and addresses of both the complainant and the violator, and detailed factual allegations, including date, time and place of the potential violation, and the specific conduct alleged to be a violation of employer sanctions. By regulation, the INS will only investigate third party complaints that have “a reasonable probability of validity.”26
Designated INS officers and employees, and all other officers whose duty it is to enforce criminal laws, may make an arrest for violation of smuggling or harboring illegal aliens.27
State and local law enforcement officials have the general power to investigate and arrest violators of federal immigration statutes without prior INS knowledge or approval, as long as they are authorized to do so by state law. There is “no extant federal limitation” on this authority. The 1996 immigration control legislation passed by Congress was intended to encourage states and local agencies to participate in the process of enforcing federal immigration laws.28
Immigration officers and local law enforcement officers may detain an individual for a brief warrantless interrogation where circumstances create a reasonable suspicion that the individual is illegally present in the U.S. Specific facts constituting a reasonable suspicion include evasive, nervous or erratic behavior, dress or speech indicating foreign citizenship, and presence in an area known to contain a concentration of illegal aliens. Hispanic appearance alone is not sufficient.29 Immigration officers and police must have a valid warrant or valid employer’s consent to enter work places or residences.30
Any vehicle used to transport or harbor illegal aliens, or as a substantial part of an activity that encourages illegal aliens to come to or reside in the U.S. may be seized by an immigration officer and is subject to forfeiture. The forfeiture power covers any conveyances used within the U.S.31
Private persons and entities may initiate civil suits to obtain injunctions and treble damages against enterprises that conspire or actually violate federal alien smuggling, harboring, or document fraud statutes under the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).32 The “pattern of racketeering” activity is defined as commission of two or more of the listed crimes. A RICO “enterprise” can be any individual legal entity, or a group of individuals who are not a legal entity but are associated in fact, and can include non-profit associations.
Employers who aid or abet the preparation of false tax returns by failing to pay income or social security taxes for illegal alien employees, or who knowingly make payments using false names or social security numbers, are subject to IRS criminal and civil sanctions.33
U.S. nationals who have suffered intentional discrimination because of citizenship or national origin by an employer with more than 3 employees may file a complaint within 180 days of the discriminatory act with the Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices, U.S. Department of Justice.34
NON-DISCRIMINATION
The policy of IllegalAliens.US is that enforcement of immigration laws should be based on U.S. law and not on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, nor disability.
Further, IllegalAliens.US conforms with the principles of nearly all immigration reduction and reform groups:
Legal immigration at lower levels is desirable; immigration at current high levels is undesirable;
All reasonable means to curtail illegal immigration must be pursued vigorously;
Corrective action must be applied by Congress and other 'elites', and;
Abuse toward immigrants and illegal aliens is unwarranted and regressive.
Given the above principles, advocating immigration enforcement and reduction is:
not racist; not anti-immigrant; and not anti-immigration.
To talk about changing immigration numbers is to say nothing against the individual immigrants in this country. Rather, it is about deciding how many foreign citizens living in their own countries right now should be allowed to immigrate in the future. America's traditional kindly feelings toward immigrants must no longer stifle public discussion about the enforcement of immigration laws.
Illegal Immigration is a Crime
US Illegal Immigrant Laws
Each year the Border Patrol makes more than a million apprehensions of aliens who flagrantly violate our nation's laws by unlawfully crossing U.S. borders. Such entry is a misdemeanor, but, if repeated, becomes punishable as a felony.
In addition to sneaking into the country (referred to as "entry without inspection — EWI") in violation of the immigration law, others enter with legal documentation and then violate the terms on which they have been admitted. The immigration authorities currently estimate that about two-thirds of all illegal immigrants are EWIs and the remainder is overstayers. Both types of illegal immigrants are deportable under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 237 (a)(1)(B) which says: "Any alien who is present in the United States in violation of this Act or any other law of the United States is deportable."
Illegal Immigration Is Not A Victimless Crime
Apologists for illegal immigration try to paint it as a victimless crime, but the fact is that illegal immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly those in the most vulnerable sectors of our population — the poor, minorities, and children.
Illegal immigration causes an enormous drain on public funds. The seminal study of the costs of immigration by the National Academy of Sciences found that the taxes paid by immigrants do not begin to cover the cost of services received by them. The quality of education, health care and other services for Americans are undermined by the needs of endless numbers of poor, unskilled illegal entrants.
Additionally, job competition by waves of illegal immigrants desperate for any job unfairly depresses the wages and working conditions offered to American workers, hitting hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees.
Illegal Immigration And Population Growth
Illegal immigration also contributes to the dramatic population growth overwhelming communities across America — crowding school classrooms, consuming already limited affordable housing, and increasing the strain on precious natural resources like water, energy, and forestland. The immigration authorities estimate that the population of illegal aliens is increasing by an estimated half million people annually.
Illegal Immigration Undermines National Security
While most illegal immigrants may come only to seek work and a better economic opportunity, their presence outside the law furnishes an opportunity for terrorists to blend into the same shadows while they target the American public for their terrorist crimes. Some people advocate giving illegal aliens legal status to bring them out of the shadows, but, if we accommodate illegal immigration by offering legal status, this will be seen abroad as a message that we condone illegal immigration, and we will forever be faced with the problem.
Border Patrol: Necessary But Not Sufficient
The Border Patrol plays a crucial role in combating illegal immigration, but illegal immigration cannot be controlled solely at the border. The overstayers as well as the EWIs who get past the Border Patrol must be identified and removed by the interior immigration inspectors of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
What Can Be Done?
There must be a comprehensive effort to end illegal immigration. That requires ensuring that illegal aliens will not be able to obtain employment, public assistance benefits, public education, public housing, or any other taxpayer-funded benefit without detection.
The three major components of immigration control — deterrence, apprehension and removal—need to be strengthened by Congress and the Executive Branch if effective control is ever to be reestablished. Controlling illegal immigration requires a balanced approach with a full range of enforcement improvements that go far beyond the border. These include many procedural reforms, beefed up investigation capacity, asylum reform, documents improvements, major improvements in detention and deportation procedures, limitations on judicial review, improved intelligence capacity, greatly improved state/federal cooperation, and added resources.
What About The Costs?
Effective control and management of the laws against illegal immigration require adequate resources. But those costs will be more than offset by savings to states, counties, communities, and school districts across the nation.
How Many Illegal Immigrants?
Illegal Immigrant Problems & Statistics
FAIR estimates that in 2007 the illegal immigrant population is above 13 million persons. Government and academic estimates indicate that as of 2006 there were 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated the illegal immigrant population at 10 million as of November 2004.
It is difficult to have an exact figure because the illegal nature of their presence prevents any enumeration, but the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 8.7 million illegal immigrants were here in 2000, and immigration officials estimate that the illegal immigrant population grows by as many as 500,000 every year.
Estimated Distribution of the Illegal Immigrant Population
The nationalities of the illegal immigrant population in the Census Bureau estimate and INS estimate for 2000 are as follow:
The estimate by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued in February 2003 put the number of resident illega immigrants at seven million (as of Jan. 2000), 4.8 million of whom were Mexican and 2.2 million of whom resided in California. That estimate included the annual rate of increase in the illegal immigrant population -- 350,000 with 73,200 (31.6%) of that annual increase taking up residence in California. So, by 2003, the illegal immigrant population would have increased to over eight million.
The method by which the INS arrived at this estimate was based on data collected as a result of the 1986 amnesty and then relied on Census data and INS legal immigration data and airline arrival/departure records for updating the estimate. The estimate included only immigrants who continued to reside illegally in the United States for more than one year. Left out of the estimate were immigrants doing seasonal work illegally in the United States and all immigrants during the first year of overstaying the terms of an authorized nonimmigrant entry, as well groups of illegal immigrant residents who were issued work permits under programs such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
The 2000 Census, like all previous censuses, made no attempt to determine the immigration status of foreign-born residents. Nevertheless, the results of the Census did contribute to a re-evaluation of the size of the illegal immigrant population. Most analysts agree that the illegal immigrant population now numbers more than 10-11 million persons as is shown below.
The first estimates that challenged the INS estimates appeared from labor force researchers at Northeastern University.1 They estimated in 2001 that the illegal immigrant population could be as large as 11 million. They later revised that estimate upward to 12 million.
The director of the Census Bureau, when asked about the much higher estimate of the illegal immigrant population agreed that the 2000 Census data indicated that the illegal immigrant estimate of the INS was too low, but did not offer a different estimate.
In the August 2001 issue of Demography, immigration researchers estimated the current total population of illegal immigrants at 7.1 million, of whom 3.9 million were Mexicans. Also in August, a demographer at the Urban Institute issued an estimate that the illegal immigrant population was 8.5 million, with 4.5 million of them being Mexican.
The Census Bureau issued an estimate in January 2002 that the illegal immigrant population in 2000 was 8,705,421. That estimate was based on the discrepancy between the number of foreign-born residents and the number of legally admitted immigrants. Included in that number may be immigrants residing in the United States under provisions that preclude their deportation, but who are not legal permanent residents, such as beneficiaries of Section 245(i) petitions, or asylees who have not been in the country long enough for adjustment of status, or Central American beneficiaries of the NACARA legislation. The Census Bureau estimate is preliminary and subject to modification after review of the methodology by interested parties.
An independent estimate by analysts of the bear-Stearns investment firm said the illegal immigrant population "…may be as high as 20 million people."2 This estimate dismisses lower official estimates as being flawed by the non-response of illegal immigrant to census takers. However, this conclusion misses the fact that the official estimates are instead based on a comparison between the growth in the foreign-born population and new legal immigrant arrivals. This allows the trend in the illegal immigrant population to be observed despite non-response in the Census.
TIME Magazine in a feature article in 2004 published an estimate of three million illegal immigrants arriving each year. However, that estimate was based on a mistaken assumption that a million illegal immigrants are being apprehended each year and three times as many avoid apprehension. The actual number of persons apprehended is considerably lower than one million because the same individual often may be apprehended multiple times during the year.
Amnesty proposals for granting legal residence to these illegal immigrants take various forms, and the number of proposed beneficiaries vary depending on the proposal. For example, in the 1986 general amnesty, illegal immigrants other than those in agricultural work were eligible only if they had been living in the United States for four years (since 1982). Thus, the nearly three million beneficiaries did not include illegal immigrants who had arrived during the previous four years (unless they presented fraudulent evidence of having arrived earlier, as many of them did).
Although the number of illegal immigrants in the country can only be estimated, and it is unclear what form currently proposed amnesty provisions might take, it is safe from the above analysis to conclude that any new amnesty would likely involve as many as four times as many illegal immigrants as benefited from the 1986 amnesty.
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[1] "Feds Undercount Illegal Aliens," NewsMax.com, (March 16, 2001).
[2] Robert Justich and Betty Ng, “The Underground Labor Force is Rising to the Surface,” Bear Sterns, January 3, 2005.
[3] Barlett, Donald and James Steele, ”Who Left the Door Open?,” TIME Magazine, September 12, 2004.
[4] The most recent estimates by DHS only show the estimate for the 10 states with the largest illegal alien population
[5] Pew Hispanic Center estimates of the illegal immigration population are stated as a range, e.g., Capfornia 2.5 million to 2.75 million. The chart shows the mid-point of the estimate, e.g. California 2.625 million.
