One of the best ways to end the economic incentives for illegal immigration is to raid the workplaces of companies who employ illegal aliens, and the Trump Administration understands this well.
As part of its goal to restore law-and-order to America’s immigration system, the Trump Administration has begun cracking down on companies who employ illegal aliens. Late last month, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a raid on a Mississippi business which led to the arrest of 16 illegal aliens. A few days earlier, ICE also raided a small Texas bakery that has admitted to hiring illegal aliens. The owners of the bakery are now facing federal charges for allegedly harboring illegal aliens. During President Donald Trump’s first term his administration also conducted a raid at a Mississippi-based chicken plant that led to the arrest of nearly 700 illegal aliens. The willingness of the White House to crack down on businesses employing illegal aliens stands in stark contrast to their predecessor.
The Biden Administration announced in its first year in office they would not be conducting workplace raids. Then-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas spun the administration’s policy as a way to protect workers from exploitation, but the result of the policy was empowering businesses reliant on cheap labor to exploit illegal aliens and drive down American wages.
“These highly visible operations misallocated enforcement resources while chilling, and even serving as a tool of retaliation for, worker cooperation in workplace standards investigations,” Mayorkas said at the time.
Like he is on so many other issues, Mayorkas was dead wrong with this assessment. The economic incentives that encourage migrants to enter the U.S. illegally, and the fact that they are in the country illegally make it extremely unlikely they will report exploitative working conditions to the proper authorities. After all, the main reason many illegal aliens go to great lengths to enter the U.S. in the first place is because of the opportunity to participate in the world’s largest economy, even if that means working for a company that exploits them. The pay for low-skilled jobs in Latin American countries are paltry compared to similar jobs in the U.S. The notion that exploited illegal alien workers are eagerly cooperating with investigations into their employer’s practices is a nonsensical excuse anti-borders activists use to justify allowing that exploitation to happen in the first place.
What refusing to enforce the law against companies who employ illegal aliens actually does is strip those job opportunities away from American workers, who are much more likely to demand safe and sanitary working conditions. Stopping employers from hiring illegal aliens protects both American jobs and the safety of workplaces across the country. It also removes a major incentive that drives economic migrants to illegally surge the U.S. border.
The Trump Administration has made it a priority to remove the economic incentives that encourage foreign nationals to enter the country illegally and make it easier for those who are already here to stay. Last month, the president issued an executive order requiring federal agencies to ensure taxpayer money was not being funneled to illegal aliens. Prohibiting illegal aliens from receiving welfare and prohibiting them from taking American jobs are the best ways to choke off the economic incentives that fuel illegal immigration. If foreign nationals understand they will not be able to benefit from American wages and taxpayer largesse, they are much more likely to stay home. Those who have already entered the U.S. illegally are also much more likely to leave once they realize the financial gravy train has run its course.
The president has vowed for years to enhance deportations to remove the tens of millions of foreign nationals who are in the country illegally. Prohibiting illegal aliens from making or receiving money in the country is a great way to get them to leave voluntarily, and spare ICE and DHS significant resources. To accomplish this, businesses who hire illegal aliens must face severe penalties. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has floated allowing employers to be sued if an illegal alien they hire kills or injures an American. This is a good idea. Another good idea would be to charge employers who hire illegal aliens under statutes that criminalize harboring illegal aliens. Most employers will not risk jail time, fines, or other significant penalties to employ illegal aliens.
For too long, too many American companies have relied on cheap, illegal labor at the expense of American workers, denigrating the rule of law in the process. The Trump Administration appears committed to ending this insidious practice and has repeatedly demonstrated their desire to terminate the economic incentives that have upended America’s immigration system.
William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.
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