U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons announced that the agency will step up enforcement efforts targeting not only illegal immigrants, but also the American companies that employ them.
“Forced labor, child trafficking, you know, a lot of these work site cases just isn't a victimless crime of someone here working illegally,” he noted, “and that's why we're going there with these criminal warrants to focus on these American businesses that are trying to make an extra dollar on the backs of these people that came here for a better life.”
He added that he is 100 percent planning to hold employers accountable.
The top industries that employ this workforce include construction, which employs about 20 percent of illegal immigrant workers; accommodation and food services, which accounts for 12 percent; manufacturing, with 11 percent; administrative, support, and waste management services, which employ 10 percent; and retail trade, which accounts for 8 percent.
In terms of occupations, the largest groups of illegal immigrant workers are construction laborers, totaling about 574,700; maids and housekeeping cleaners, totaling roughly 364,200; and cooks, totaling approximately 335,200, according to the Center for Migration Studies.
The Pew Research Center also found that the job sectors with the highest shares of illegal immigrant workers include construction at 15 percent, agriculture at 14 percent, leisure and hospitality at 8 percent, other services at 7 percent, and professional and business services at 7 percent.
According to USCIS, employers can qualify for the program if they offer temporary or seasonal farm work and “demonstrate that there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work.”
Employers must also show that hiring foreign workers won’t negatively affect the wages or working conditions of U.S. employees in similar roles.