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ICE. The GAO testified on June 21, 2005 that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made worksite enforcement a "low priority," reducing the share of its budget devoted to trying to prevent unauthorized workers from getting jobs from nine percent in FY99 to four percent in FY03.

In FY99, 417 US employers were cited for employing unauthorized workers; in FY04, three were cited. There were 65 agents focused on worksite enforcement in FY04, down from 240 in 1999. ICE says that it has been hard to prove employer violations of the sanctions law and to collect fines. ICE agents must obtain approval from headquarters before conducting workplace inspections not related to critical infrastructure, as at airports and nuclear plants.

In many cases, worksite enforcement has political repercussions. Inspections of Vidalia onion fields of Georgia in May 1998 brought a rebuke from then Rep. and now Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who accused immigration officials of using "bullying tactics" to root out illegal workers. Today, Chambliss is a leader of the get-tough-on-illegal-immigration faction of the Republican party, and argues that the US needs to step up both border and interior enforcement.

ICE did step up workplace inspections in spring 2006, as the Senate debated immigration reform. On April 19, 2006, ICE agents detained almost 1,187 migrants in 26 states as well as seven managers at IFCO Systems, a German-owned refurbisher of the wooden pallets used by supermarkets to handle goods. Interviews with some of the workers returned to Mexico reported wages of $350 a week at IFCO, and some of the Oaxacans removed said they had picked tomatoes in northwestern Mexico before coming to the US.

ICE said that workplace inspections would continue in 2006, with agents targeting employers who "egregiously and specifically violate the law." ICE director Julie Myers acknowledged that it will be hard to reverse "growing tolerance for the employment of illegal aliens and for illegal immigration."

In May 2006, ICE apprehended 76 workers employed by Fischer Homes, based in Kentucky, and charged four Fischer supervisors with aiding and abetting or harboring illegal migrants for commercial or private financial gain. ICE agents in western New York arrested 29 employees of Schichtel Nursery in May 2006, and immediately flew them to the Mexican border for removal. It appears that neither Rochester-based contractor Cliff DeMay nor nursery owner George Schichtel will be charged-- DeMay complained: "It's a shame they're taking these good people away when they all might be offered amnesty in a few weeks."

ICE in April-May 2006 charged the owner of an Indiana stucco company with employing illegal workers and won guilty pleas and the forfeiture of more than $1 million by operators of three Baltimore restaurants for conspiring to harbor illegal migrants. Two Ohio temporary-employment agencies and nine people were indicted on charges of hiring and harboring illegal migrants.

Some said the goal of these ICE operations was to send a signal that a guest worker program must be included in immigration reforms, while others said the goal was to intimidate unauthorized foreigners and reduce participation in demonstrations in favor of the Senate bill. In some areas, rumors of ICE raids led to fewer children at school and some workers staying away from work.

At least half of the 7.5 million unauthorized workers in the US are believed to have jobs with mainstream firms, often using legitimate SSNs that belong to others. The New York Times on June 19, 2006 outlined the rising share of immigrants in the US janitorial industry, saying that Hispanic immigrants rose from five to 20 percent of US janitors between 1980 and 2000. Janitors' median earnings fell three percent in real terms between 1983 and 2002, a time when real earnings across all occupations rose by eight percent.

The Charlotte Observer on April 23, 2006 reported that ICE has data on many employers who have likely violated immigration laws, including one employer using the same Social Security Number for 2,580 worker reports to the Social Security Administration and another who submitted 4,100 SSNs that belonged to other workers. Some 40 US employers have been consistently among the top 100 in filing inaccurate wage reports over eight years.

The SSA's Earnings Suspense File, created in the 1930s, receives 255 million wage reports a year. About 10 percent are inaccurate due to mistakes and misuse of Social Security numbers by immigrants and others; half of these inaccurate wage reports are from agriculture, construction and restaurant employers (another source says SSA sends mis-match letters to 130,000 US employers affecting eight million workers a year). On June 9, 2006, DHS issued regulations that require employers who receive mis-match letters from SSA to ensure that there is not a typographical mistake and contact the employee about the mis-match or face penalties.

The Los Angeles Times on April 15, 2006 reported that contractors are increasingly the glue that links unauthorized workers and US jobs. When unauthorized workers are detected at airports or military bases, liability usually stops with the contractor who brought the workers to the facility, so that contractors act as "risk absorbers" for larger businesses.

In an effort to get larger businesses to police their subcontractors, the federal government brought cases arguing that the beneficiary of the work is jointly liable with the contractor for immigration violations. However, in February 2003, a jury acquitted Tyson Foods of knowing that a placement agency was supplying unauthorized workers to its poultry processing plants. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, agreed to pay $11 million to the federal government in 2005 after a raid resulted in the arrest of 245 undocumented janitors, since the government had evidence that Wal-Mart executives knew their janitorial subcontractors hired unauthorized workers.

The AP reported that some of the unauthorized workers apprehended at the US-Mexican border have jobs waiting for them. The Great Texas Employment Agency in McKinney, Texas placed ads in Chinese-language newspapers in the Chicago area offering Latino workers to Chinese restaurants. Shan Wei Yu sent recruiters to find newly arrived illegal workers in the border area and drive them north, placing 6,000 migrants in the upper Midwest over 15 months and earning $900,000 (migrants had the $450 in recruitment and transportation fees deducted from their first-month paychecks of $1,000). The migrants usually had 14-hour work days and little contact with the outside world.

ICE also apprehends and removes foreigners ordered deported from the US. More state and local law enforcement agencies ask ICE to take custody of unauthorized foreigners who commit "minor crimes," including drunk driving and domestic violence. The US Department of Justice estimates that 270,000 unauthorized foreigners spent time in state and local prisons in 2005, and ICE is making an effort to take custody of them when they have served their sentences.

The US Supreme Court in June 2006 upheld the right of the US government to deport Utah truck driver Humberto Fernandez-Vargas to Mexico in 2004 because he returned to the U.S. illegally in 1982 after having been previously deported. The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act requires illegal migrants who reenter the country after a previous deportation to be removed, usually with no opportunity for an appeal or change in immigration status, and to stay away for at least 10 years. Fernandez-Vargas married a US citizen in 2001, applied for a green card and was deported because of his prior deportation.

CBP. Some 1,676,438 foreigners were apprehended by the Border Patrol, a part of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), just inside the Mexico-US border in 2000. Apprehensions dropped to 931,557 in 2003, but rose to 1,189,067 in 2005. Some 473 persons died on the southwest border in FY05, and 210 in the first six months of FY06.

There are now about 11,000 Border Patrol agents, making the Border Patrol the largest federal law enforcement agency. President Bush pledged to add 6,000 Border Patrol agents by the end of 2008. Recruits complete a 19 week, 750-hour training course that includes 221 hours of Spanish-language instruction.

Apprehensions and smuggling fees are rising. The Border Patrol says that smugglers now charge $1,500 to $2,000 to take migrants from Mexican border towns to Phoenix. Some Border Patrol agents attribute rising apprehensions to US discussions of legalization as well as more fences and agents. Some smugglers are urging migrants to go now to take advantage of any legalization and get into the US before border controls are strengthened.

About 90 percent of those apprehended along the Mexico-US border are Mexicans. Most are fingerprinted, photographed and allowed to return voluntarily to Mexico, unless a large number of prior arrests suggests they are smugglers. According to an Associated Press report on May 18, 2006, only six percent of 289 suspected smugglers were prosecuted for that offense in the year ending in September 2004 (some were prosecuted for other crimes, including illegally re-entering the US). Associated Press reported that only those who smuggle 12 or more migrants are prosecuted, and that smuggling fees averaged $1,400 in 2004.

The 155,000 "other than Mexicans" (OTMs) apprehended in FY05 have the right to go before an immigration judge and explain why they should not be removed from the US. Limited detention space for OTMs means that most are released and do not appear in immigration court. Mexico plays a crucial role in OTM policy. It does not accept the return of third-country nationals who transited Mexico to the US. In February 2004, Mexico dropped visa requirements on Brazilians, and many flew to Mexico to enter the US illegally at the Mexico-US border. In October 2005, Mexico re-imposed visa requirements on Brazilians.

An average of 4,300 Salvadorans a month were apprehended on the Mexico-US border in FY06. A 1988 court order requires the US government to give them a hearing before removal, a legacy of US policies during El Salvador's civil war, which ended in 1992. Because of limited detention space, most Salvadorans apprehended are released and given an order to appear in court; 90 percent fail to appear.

President Bush has vowed to replace this catch-and-release with a catch-and-remove policy. Under Operation Streamline II, foreigners apprehended along 190 miles of the Texas-Mexican border are prosecuted for the misdemeanor crime of illegal entry and jailed for 15 to 180 days before removal, with a second offense leading to a two-year prison sentence. Apprehensions fell sharply around Eagle Pass, suggesting that enforcing existing laws could reduce illegal entries.

Some urge prosecution of all apprehended foreigners despite the $35,000 a year cost of detaining a foreigner. About 70 percent of OTMs apprehended in FY05 were released, and over 80 percent of those released did not appear in immigration court. DHS has about 19,000 beds available to detain foreigners, and Bush proposed adding 6,000. In September 2005, DHS expanded "expedited removal" to the full southern border, meaning that OTM foreigners can be removed without an immigration hearing unless they seek asylum or cite a fear of persecution at home.

About 60 percent of unauthorized foreigners enter the US between ports of entry; 40 percent enter legally and overstay or violate the terms of their visa, as when a tourist goes to work. DHS estimates 165,000 "visa violations" a year (8,000 visa violators were arrested in 2005), and is working on an entry-exit tracking system, US-VISIT, to identify those who enter the US legally and overstay. US-VISIT in May 2006 was operating at 115 airports, 15 seaports and 154 land ports of entry, but the exit part of the system will not be operating until 2007.

The ACLU is suing the federal government over the FBI-operated terrorist screening watch list, which included 237,000 names in 2005. There are 12 federal agencies that can add names to the list, but only the originating agency can remove a name, and those added do not know which agency added them to the list. The suit involves individuals detained every time they return to the US.

USCIS. On Form I-9, US employers certify that they reviewed documents presented by newly hired employees establishing identity and right to work in the US. Document fraud (use of counterfeit documents) and identity fraud (fraudulent use of valid documents or information belonging to others) make it difficult for employers to ensure they hire only authorized workers and allows some to knowingly hire unauthorized workers and escape sanctions.

About 6,200 US employers were participating in the voluntary Basic Pilot employee verification system at 25,000 hiring sites in 2006. These employers submit personal data as well as immigration and social security numbers via the Internet or by telephone to be checked against immigration and social security databases. If these employer-submitted data do not match SSA and/or DHS records, employees have eight days to contact SSA or USCIS to correct the data. About 85 percent of the employer-submitted data results in clear authorized or not-authorized results immediately. Some reports say that 15 percent must be checked manually, but USCIS says only three percent require manual checks.

A GAO report in August 2005 concluded that Basic Pilot relies on flawed databases, could not detect identity fraud, and was vulnerable to employer abuse. A third of non-US citizens initially flagged as "unable to confirm" are later found to be legally authorized to work. Expanding Basic Pilot to cover all new hires, as required by the House and Senate bills, would cost at least $1 billion and take several years; President Bush requested $110 million in FY07 to improve Basic Pilot.

USCIS handles naturalization, which costs $330, and immigrant visas issued inside the US, which cost $325; in each case, there is also a $70 fingerprinting fee. DHS says that these fees do not reflect its costs and wants to raise them.

Immigration 2005. There were 1.1 million legal immigrants in FY05, up from 960,000 in FY04 and 705,000 in FY03. Mexico's share of the immigrant flow, 161,000 or 14 percent, lower than the usual 30 percent. The five leading countries of origin, Mexico, China, India, Philippines and Cuba, accounted for 37 percent of FY05 immigrants.

As in previous years, about 40 percent of those "admitted" in FY05 were immediate relatives of US citizens, 437,000, up from 419,000 in FY04 and 333,000 in FY03. The number of family-sponsored immigrants subject to quota restrictions was 650,000 in FY05, up from 633,000 in FY04 and 493,000 in FY03.

The largest increase was in employment-based immigration, 247,000 in FY05, up from 155,000 in FY04 and 82,000 in FY03. Numbers were up in all categories, from 14,500 priority workers in FY03 to 65,000 in FY05; for professionals with advanced degrees from 15,500 in FY03 to 43,000 in FY05; and for other workers from 47,000 in FY03 to 129,000 in FY05.

Refugees. The US has settled an average of 98,000 refugees a year since the Refugee Act of 1980 changed the US definition to reflect the Geneva Convention, which defines refugees as persons unable or unwilling to return to their home country owing to a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political views or membership in a particular social group. The US budgeted $484 million for refugee services in FY05; refugees receive at least $400 on arrival in the US, and are to repay their transportation costs to the US within three years.

The USA Patriot Act of 2001 bars the resettlement in the US of refugees who provided "material support" to terrorist groups. One result is that 9,300 Burmese refugees in camps in Thailand were barred from resettlement because they paid taxes to the Karen National Union, which is attempting to unseat the Burmese government. In May 2006, the Bush administration announced that the these Burmese would be given a waiver so that they can be resettled in the US; refugee advocates want the US law changed so that waivers are not needed.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 7-4 decision in June 2005 ruled that a South African family that faced persecution at home because the wife's father was a "brutal racist" could receive asylum in the US because families were "social groups."

TPS. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras and Nicaragua. In response, the US granted temporary protected status to Hondurans and Nicaraguans in the US so they could earn money and send home remittances for rebuilding. About 75,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans received TPS.

As the sixth renewal approached on June 1, 2006, fewer than 38,000 Hondurans and 2,000 Nicaraguans had paid $250 to renew their TPS. Some reportedly said that they preferred to save the money and become immigrants under the Senate-passed immigration reform bill. Spanish-language media trumpeted the Senate bill, and some advisors were quoted as saying that foreigners with TPS may not be eligible for legalization.

Some 220,000 Salvadorans were granted TPS in 2001 after earthquakes struck their country; their TPS has been renewed three times. Burundians, Liberians, Somalis and Sudanese have TPS as well.

Sylvia Moreno, "Along Part of the Border, A Zero-Tolerance Zone," Washington Post, June 18, 2006. Nicole Gaouette, "New Crackdown on Hiring of Illegal Immigrants," Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2006. Griff Witte, "Expanded Worker Checks Would Use Faulty System," Washington Post, May 25, 2006. Anna Gorman, "Staying Put When Visas Expire," Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2006. Spencer S. Hsu, "Arrests Target Use of Illegal Workers," Washington Post, May 10, 2006. Peter St. Onge and Tim Funk, "Stolen Social Security numbers used to get jobs," Charlotte Observer, April 23, 2006. Anna Gorman, "Contractors Often Play a Key Role in the Hiring of Illegal Immigrants," Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2006.