While the administration of George W. Bush focused on headline-making raids that resulted in arrests of immigrant workers, the Obama administration has gone after employers with ICE’s I-9 audits on the theory that employers who hire unauthorized workers create the demand that drives most illegal immigration. Nationally, from fiscal year 2009 to date, ICE has initiated Form I-9 inspections against nearly 4,000 businesses resulting in fines of nearly $7 million. Employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This form requires employers to review and record the individual’s identity and employment eligibility document(s) and determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and related to the individual. Additionally, an employer must ensure that the employee provides certain information regarding his or her eligibility to work on the Form I-9. The New York Times ran a story on July 14, 2011 that discussed the effect that an I-9 audit can have on a business. The article focuses on the case of a California employer, David Cox, whose I-9 audit revealed that 26 of his 99 employees were not authorized to work in the United States. Because ICE determined he had acted reasonably in hiring them, Mr. Cox was not fined or held criminally liable. But after confirming that the 26 employees could not produce authentic documents, he was forced to fire them. The article discusses the economic effect that this had on his business.
The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article today about the success story of the immigrant owner of the Mi Pueblo Food Center. There is an outlet of this grocery store in nearby San Rafael. The market’s owner, Juvenal Chavez came to America from his native Mexico when he was 24. He spoke only a bit of English and he had no money. His brother asked him to help start a small Mexican market in Redwood City. During the years he worked with his brother, he scrimped and saved $100,000 to use as a down payment on his first grocery store, a small meat market on Story Road in San Jose. He pulled his last $480 out of savings to stock the store with produce and supplied it with meat from the one vendor who would give him credit. Back then, the market’s staff was just he, his wife, Maria, his sister and a few workers. Now he has 3,000 employees, 20 supermarkets and a sprawling corporate headquarters , just across the street from his original meat market. The stores have not only been a good business venture, but a way for Chavez to preserve his culture, he said. By offering immigrants, as well as multi-generations of Mexican Americans, the foods of their roots and a shopping atmosphere that mirrors their homeland, he’s keeping his ancestors’ history alive.
I recently came across the 2007 movie, The Visitor. This movie is a compelling story about an American college professor and a young immigrant couple who grapple with the treatment of immigrants and the legal process in post-9/11 America. A critically acclaimed film whose leading actor was nominated for an Academy Award, The Visitor puts a remarkably human face on the stark realities of our immigration system. Without having to say so, the film makes obvious why the current system needs immediate and sweeping reform.
I saw the movie Babel again recently and remembered how much I enjoyed it and how it illustrated many different issues surrounding immigration law: the atrocities and the daily living conditions of those living in the Afghani countryside, as well as the lives of the illegal immigrants living amongst us. These people take care of our children, and we love them. They also have lives and families in Mexico or elsewhere that mean something to them.
Immigration Law in the News, Putting a Face on Immigration Law, Worksite Enforcement | melissa | 
July 24, 2011 10:38 pm | 
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