Immigration Roundup: Increased Action Shows Progress

Matt Mayer / January 24, 2011

Recently, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it was creating a new center to substantially increase the number of I-9 form audits it conducts of businesses.

Though the increase in paper audits come at the expense of worksite raids, the audits are having an impact on the hiring of illegal immigrants. According to ICE, in the last fiscal year, it conducted audits of more than 2,700 companies. When illegal immigrants are discovered during the audits, the companies terminate them. Just this week, the fast-food chain Chipotle in Minnesota terminated 350–700 (accounts differ) of the 1,200 workers when ICE audits revealed the illegal immigrant status of the workers. The restaurants replaced the illegal immigrants workers with citizens or legal immigrants. (more…)