(The Center Square) – In just a few months, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested more than 1,000 “illegal alien workers without employment authorization.”
It’s “the highest rate of arrest in HSI’s history,” HSI acting Executive Associate Director Robert Hammer said in April. “We’ve subpoenaed the business records of about 1,200 businesses, and as part of our review, we’ve proposed close to $1 million in fines.”
Fast forward into the end of May and hundreds more have been arrested through targeted worksite multiagency enforcement actions nationwide, with more than $8 million in fines levied in Denver alone.
On May 29, more than 100 citizens of Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela were arrested at construction sites in Tallahassee. One was “taken into state custody for resisting arrest and is being charged with four counts of assault on law enforcement officers. Another attempted to pull a weapon on officers,” ICE said.
In Tampa, 33 citizens of Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico were arrested at construction sites “in one of the fastest growing communities in the nation located 20 miles south of Ocala,” ICE said. Four were charged with felony reentry; more than 30 “could be seen fleeing from the construction sites,” ICE said.
In Atlanta, ICE agents found two unaccompanied minors (UACs) and five adults from Guatemala and Mexico during a worksite enforcement operation at a subdivision in Theodore. One of the adults was previously twice deported.
The minors illegally entered the U.S. in 2023, were apprehended by Border Patrol agents and transferred into the custody of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. ORR has a long history of documented abuse of minors within facilities it manages, paid for by taxpayers. Allegations and criminal charges include sex abuse, trafficking and forced labor, The Center Square has reported.
This case was no different. ICE agents learned that “neither UAC was enrolled in school nor had any relatives in the area.” The children were sent back to ORR, ICE said.
In Denver, three businesses received more than $8 million in fines after ICE worksite audits “uncovered widespread employment eligibility violations.” CCS Denver, Inc. was fined $6.18 million “after a 100% substantive violation rate and evidence of knowingly hiring and employing at least 87 unauthorized workers.” PBC Commercial Cleaning Systems, Inc., was fined nearly $1.6 million “for a 74% violation rate and a pattern of knowingly employing at least 12 unauthorized workers;” Green Management Denver was fined $270,195 “after a 100% violation rate and identification of 44 unauthorized employees.”
In Detroit, ICE filed a civil complaint against a Chinese money laundering organization and seized 14 properties, seven bank accounts and 15 vehicles worth millions of dollars. It was charged with operating “a staffing company to supply illegal workers to a factory in Ohio and harbored that illegal workforce.”
In Louisiana, 15 citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua were arrested at construction sites in the New Orleans area. In another operation, 11 citizens of Ecuador, Mexico and Nicaragua were arrested as part of an investigation “into the illegal hiring of unauthorized employees by commercial and industrial general contractors currently engaged in a construction project within the Port of Lake Charles.”
In Lowell, Mass., ICE agents arrested 11 Ecuadorians working for a roofing business; in Philadelphia they arrested four Brazilian nationals at a meat market; at the Port of New York/New Jersey, they arrested 16 illegal foreign nationals.
In Laredo, Texas, ICE agents arrested 31 citizens of El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico at business and construction sites with prior convictions, including “aggravated criminal sexual assault, bodily harm, possession of a controlled substance, evading arrest, transporting noncitizens, domestic violence/strangulation, terroristic threats,” weapons charges and others.
“Businesses that exploit and hire illegal workers are harming the American public,” Hammer said. “ICE’s statutory duties include protecting Americans and enforcing more than 400 laws that relate to immigration, so there are two aspects to our worksite enforcement operations.”
Investigators conduct I-9 inspections and audits in accordance with federal law, which requires employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of everyone they hire using the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9. “These inspections are among the federal government’s most effective tools to enforce U.S. employment laws,” ICE says.
ICE imposes civil fines, makes criminal referrals, makes criminal arrests of employers and administrative arrests of unauthorized workers after uncovering “multiple forms of criminal activity,” including human trafficking, document fraud, and human rights abuses, including forced labor.
In fiscal 2024, the Department of Labor investigated 736 cases of child labor violations impacting more than 4,000 children. It fined employers more than $15 million, an 89% increase from the previous year.