As they say, it was an exciting Wednesday around here. This is a summary of the events:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 280 employees at a technology repair company in Collin County, Texas, on charges of working in the United States illegally. It’s the largest work site raid in the country in more than a decade, according to a Homeland Security Investigations official.
ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division received tips that the company — CVE Technology Group — may have knowingly hired undocumented immigrants and that several workers were using fraudulent identification documents, said Katrina Berger, special agent in charge in HSI’s Dallas office. Hiring irregularities found during an audit of the company’s I-9 forms confirmed those tips. CVE hasn’t responded to media requests for comment.
Federal hiring laws require that employers have new hires fill out I-9 forms. The laws perform “necessary and common sense functions,” Berger said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
“They ensure U.S. citizens and legal U.S. residents are hired for jobs in the U.S.,” Berger said. “They also ensure that illegal workers are not preyed upon or paid less than the going wage or otherwise coerced or cheated or subjected to unsafe working conditions without any means of complaint.”
Businesses that knowingly hire undocumented workers “create an atmosphere poised for exploiting an illegal workforce,” Berger said.
Biggest operation in 10 years, or so I hear!
These companies are a triple threat to the Hispanic community:
First, they are exploiting workers ruthlessly, from human smuggling to document fraud;
Second, these companies avoid legal Hispanic workers; and.
Third, they make it more difficult for Hispanic-owned companies operating legally to compete in the marketplace. In other words, you can not compete with a competitor who has a labor advantage because of illegal immigration.
Let’s hope that ICE sent a message.
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