According to a report on Tuesday, by The Daily Beast, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intends to send agents to raid a national food chain, as part of a nationwide operation to target workforces. The Daily Beast has seen ICE documents, which show that the raids aim to target employers who are knowingly employing undocumented immigrants and paying them less than the legal minimum wage.
The pending investigations against the, as yet, unnamed food chain are part of the recently announced plan by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will see a quadrupling of the number of raids they perform on workplaces. Franchise owners are likely to face charges if they are found employing undocumented immigrants, and there are apparently plans to target specific businesses.
An ICE official told The Daily Beast that such workers are little more than slave labor, and that undocumented immigrants who are swept up in the raids may be offered temporary permission to remain in the US in return for testifying against their employers. This contradicts the statement made by Tom Homan, the acting chief of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said that they will be deported.
The number of arrests of undocumented immigrants who have no other criminal records have doubled under the Trump administration. Immigration arrests increased by as much as 43 percent this year, although there has been a fall in the number of deportations.