MISSION STATEMENT

Stop Illegal Businesses from Victimizing Immigrants!

We are all guilty of encouraging immigrant victimization every time we enjoy getting a reduced price for goods or services from an undocumented worker who has accepted inferior wages because they fear deportation. Our Government has caused the problem, but how do We The People fix it?

Mission Statement

The citizens, government, and law enforcement organizations in the United States are guilty of enabling the victimization of immigrants. Through our actions and inactions we enable and encourage undocumented immigrants to work in America. Although we give them jobs and offer them “sanctuary cities”, they still live under the constant threat of deportation. Fear of deportation makes these people easy targets for unfair wages and sexual harassment. Yet it is the promise of jobs which encourages over ten thousand men, women, and children to become undocumented (illegal) immigrants every month. This promise of jobs and prosperity is also what makes it possible for human traffickers to pack box trucks with 30-50 people and charge them between $5,000 and $25,000 to be smuggled into the country. Many of these people are then forced to work dangerous and low-paying jobs or as sex workers to pay off their debt to these members of organized crime.

As long as we choose to enjoy having our lawns cut, houses cleaned, and fruit picked by under-paid undocumented labor, then we are just as guilty as the human trafficker forcing young girls into prostitution. We advertise these jobs and then hold the undocumented immigrants hostage, telling ourselves it is OK because they act so grateful and say that being a little under-paid is better than being shot at in their home country.

The only way to stop the steady flood of immigrants seeking jobs and opportunity in the land of milk and honey is to stop allowing criminal enterprises to give jobs to undocumented immigrants. If you eliminate the illegal jobs, you eliminate the inducement to become an undocumented immigrant and you eliminate the ability of human traffickers to persuade people to be smuggled into the country.

Giving a job to an undocumented immigrant is illegal. Failure to check and maintain documentation to prove a person is eligible to work carries penalties up to several thousand dollars per person. However, ICE simply does not have the manpower to adequately enforce the penalty provisions of the INA, also known as the I-9 Program. The solution is to encourage the participation of local law enforcement and the members of local communities to identify and stop these illegal companies from their on-going pattern of immigrant victimization.

The attached Executive Order will create of the Whistleblower And Local Law Enforcement Teamwork (WALLET) Program. WALLET will augment the current ICE Delegation of Immigration Authority Program, commonly referred to as the 287(g) Program, by empowering local law enforcement and municipal governments to assess and collect fines for I-9 violations under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as a result of tips received from local citizen whistleblowers. Additionally, instead of burdening the local government with the cost of supporting ICE, this program will make the communities affected by the enforcement action eligible to receive a grant for Law Enforcement Training, administrative costs, immigrant outreach, and community participation incentives.

I-9 enforcement currently diverts important ICE resources from more serious issues such as gang violence and human trafficking. However, with the help of local law enforcement and citizen whistleblowers, this program will take great steps to prevent employers from breaking the law and will return these jobs to eligible workers. Without the jobs, many of the illegal immigrants will go back home where they can then apply to enter and work in the United States legally and without the constant fear of deportation.