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Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reports that between April 2018 and March of this year, 120,344 people were prosecuted for illegal entry. Meanwhile, in the same 12-month period only 11 employers in 7 cases were prosecuted; 3 got jail time.
The federal Immigration Reform and Control Act, enacted in 1986, criminalized hiring illegal immigrants and set penalties including incarceration for violators. Ironically, as the Trump administration is trying to deport people here under the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program – “Dreamers” – that Reagan-era measure legalized most undocumented immigrants who’d come here before 1982. Decisions to prosecute under the statute originate with ICE, which forwards cases to U.S. Attorney offices, which may prosecute on the law or related crimes, from wire fraud to tax evasion. Of course, both agencies get cues from the White House, and though the approach has been nonpartisan (the Obama administration prosecuted about 13 company cases per year), it’s gotten worse since 2016.
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