a baby step

We're told by John Morton, President Obama’s choice to head ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency), at his Senate confirmation hearing this week, that the new administration will target employers who hire undocumented immigrants rather than the undocumented workers themselves.

“We cannot make sustained reductions in illegal immigration without deterring employment of unauthorized labor,” Morton told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “We need to place renewed focus on employers to ensure that they are playing by the rules.”

Morton vowed to “vigorously pursue” civil fines against employer violators. The Bush administration did not exact a single dime of civil penalties from employers in 2005 and 2006, Morton testified, compared to $25 million imposed as recently as 1996.

The Obama administration so far this year has imposed $2.3 million in civil fines against employers, Morton said, adding: “I would encourage this trend.”

a year without a Guatamalan? might be more appropriate

We're approaching an anniversary that we need to discuss and we will do that here. Mother Jones has a good story about a year without a Mexican but that may be too narrow.

It all began with the whir and flicker of helicopters on May 12, 2008, an incongruous sound in a tiny Iowa town tucked amid cornfields. All over Postville, people craned their necks from orderly lawns, phones rang, and gossip flew. Reverend Stephen Brackett, the town's Lutheran pastor, was on his day off and didn't hear the helicopters at first, but when his church secretary called to tell him something unusual was happening, he at once suspected what it was. For years, there were rumors that the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant at the edge of town was under scrutiny by immigration authorities. Later that morning, Brackett's wife called with confirmation: She'd spotted two helicopters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in jackets and flak vests down by the slaughterhouse.

What happened in Postville is larger than that. We'll be discussing it between now and the May 12, 2009 one-year anniversary.

Postville, Iowa and undocumented workers