Chishti said federal raids like the one that occurred at Fuyao Glass America in Moraine last month are rare, and the government is more likely to rely on audits of companies’ employment records if it suspects a company employs people who are not authorized to work.
“So the fact that they did this (Fuyao raid) is unusual, at least these days,” Chishti said.
Companies violating the law can be assessed penalties and the unauthorized workers deported.
“If there is a pattern or practice then you can go to jail,” Chishti said. “Very few people have gone to jail.”
In the past, federal raids would often target the employees working illegally, but rarely the employer, he said.
“And you would not get to the heart of the problem,” Chishti said, referring to the broader issue of employers hiring immigrants not authorized to work. “And the heart of the problem is this is a criminal enterprise.”
On July 26 U.S. Department of Homeland Security and multiple other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies served search warrants at the Chinese-owned automotive glass maker Fuyao and at 27 other locations, including residences, in Dayton, Liberty Twp., Miamisburg, Moraine and West Carrollton.
The criminal investigation is focused on money laundering, potential human smuggling, labor exploitation and financial crimes, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jared Murphey.
Fuyao said the company was told by federal authorities that a third-party employment services company is the focus of the investigation, according to a Shanghai Stock Exchange filing by the company.
“Federal government agents and supporting local law enforcement officers visited Fuyao Glass America, Inc. (”FGA”) as part of an investigation which we believe involves certain FGA contractors,” said Lei Shi, Fuyao’s community relations manager, in a statement to the Dayton Daily News. “The company intends to cooperate fully with the investigation.”
Rules for hiring
All employers are required to have new employees complete a U.S. Department of Homeland Security I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form attesting to their identity and employment authorization. Employers must review and verify the information and documents provided by the employee.
Third party staffing contractors who place employees at other companies are obligated to handle eligibility verification for those employees, Chishti said.
The I-9 form, which is retained by the employer, requires name, address, birth date, contact information and a Social Security number.
The employee must provide two documents establishing both identity and employment authorization from a list of 25 types of documents. Among the acceptable documents are a U.S. passport, Social Security card, permanent resident card, employment authorization document, birth certificate and photo identification such as a driver’s license.
Employment verification requirements went into place when the federal government in 1986 made it illegal for companies to hire people who were not lawfully in the U.S. and had no government permission to work.
That bipartisan 1986 immigration reform bill, signed by then-President Ronald Reagan, also made nearly 3 million unauthorized immigrants who had lived continuously in the U.S. before Jan. 1, 1982 eligible to apply for legalization.
Framers of the bill hoped that making it harder to get jobs would deter people from crossing the border unlawfully, but that didn’t turn out to be the case, Chishti said.
An estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the U.S., about 79% of whom entered the U.S. before 2010, according to a May report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security using data through 2022.
Some people use the term “undocumented” but the official federal term is “unauthorized” and is defined by homeland security as all foreign-born non-citizens who are not legal residents.
Unauthorized immigrants include people who entered the U.S. unlawfully and do not have an immigration status or permission to be here, as well as those who have temporary permission to be in the U.S. under certain programs, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), according to the homeland security report.
People awaiting approval of a permanent residence application or other immigration status, or awaiting removal proceedings in immigration court, also are considered unauthorized, according to the report.
Legal residents include those granted citizenship, lawful permanent residence, asylum or refugee status as well as children born in the U.S. and people here on unexpired student or temporary worker visas.
The government has a variety of visas that allow foreign-born non-citizens, including those who are not immigrating, to legally work here. Work permits are available for people in the TPS and DACA programs or those awaiting approval of an immigration status, such as asylum.
Waiting periods for work permits, including a 150-day wait after an asylum claim is filed, as well as numerical limits on employment-based visas are built into immigration law to protect American jobs, said Ericka Curran, an immigration attorney and associate professor of legal professional skills at the University of Dayton School of Law.
“They don’t want companies to just look for a cheaper foreign worker,” said Curran, who spoke during an interview last year. “Companies (wanting to use an employment-based visa) have to prove they cannot find American workers and then sponsor the workers for that kind of immigration benefit to be approved.”
7 million unauthorized immigrants working
The Migration Policy Institute estimates that about 7 million unauthorized immigrants are working. Those without permission to work may present fraudulent documents, such as fictional or stolen Social Security numbers and fake work authorization documents.
Or, said Chishti, employers hire them without requiring proof of employment eligibility or keep them off the official payroll, leaving those workers more vulnerable to exploitation.
“They know you have to feed yourself. They will employ you,” Chishti said. “That’s what they call the underground economy.”
He said those who recruit and bring people over the border illegally to fill jobs also can be charged with human trafficking.
When the 1986 bill was being considered business groups raised concerns about how difficult it would be to verify documents. To address that concern, the law specified it was illegal to “knowingly” hire an unauthorized worker, making it much more difficult to prove allegations against employers accused of hiring those workers, Chishti said.
The 1986 law also attempted to address concerns that the verification rules would lead companies to discriminate against certain employees based on their appearance.
“They have to ask for documents,” Chishti said. “If they say, ‘Your Social Security document doesn’t look right to me,’ but then they ask only Hispanic-looking people that (question) then they are violating the law.”
Chishti said it would help if more companies used e-Verify, which is the federal government’s free web-based system that allows companies and organizations to compare information on Form I-9 to records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to confirm employment eligibility.
Some states already require that employers use it, and federal contractors also must use it. In June the Ohio House of Representatives passed HB 327 which requires certain employers and contractors use e-Verify. The bill is pending in a senate committee.
“It’s not that easy to fix it for a large country and a large economy like ours,” said Chishti. “What we have argued for is first we have to modernize our employment verification system.”
Staff writer Thomas Gnau contributed to this report.
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