Businesses in the US can expect more immigration crackdowns in 2018, experts say. The next step in the multi-level strategy of the Trump administration to cut down on illegal immigration is worksite enforcement. Comments in recent months from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show that raids and audits on employers to catch undocumented immigrant workers and their employers will step up this year.
In December, Thomas Homan, the ICE deputy director, told a press conference in Washington DC that he wanted to see work site operations increased by as much as 400 percent. In the summer of 2017, around 800 undocumented employees of Chicago’s Cloverhill Bakery were fired after an audit by immigration officers found many of them had obtained work via stolen or fake papers. More recently, ICE officers raided almost 100 7-Eleven stores across the US, resulting in the arrest of 21 suspected undocumented immigrants.
ICE carry out regular 1-9 audits, which attempt to verify if employees provided proper evidence of identification, like a Social Security card or driver’s license upon hiring. Employers must keep the forms for the duration of the employment, and until sometime after the employee has ceased working for the business.
ICE inspections reached a peak of 3127 in the 2013 fiscal year, after which the Obama administration moved its focus away from undocumented immigrants in the workplace, but that has now changed again under Trump. 1360 inspections were carried out in 2017, and the figure is expected to grow in 2018.