Gov't Going After 'Systematic' Immigration Violators

Well, it's a start.

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government said it arrested 1,187 people on charges stemming from illegal immigration in Wednesday's raids -- more than the total number of immigration violators arrested in 2005. And it's going to get worse for "systematic violators," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday.
Chertoff called Wednesday's raids in multiple states the "largest single worksite enforcement operation against a company in American history." Those arrested include managers and former managers who hired undocumented workers.
Chertoff said the investigation is continuing -- and the government's enforcement effort is expanding. He said the strategy is aimed at "the infrastructure that permits illegal work to take place in the United States."
According to Chertoff, the government is looking at organizations that promote the "harboring and hiring" of undocumented workers, and those organizations will be viewed "in the same way we look at other criminal organizations."
The strategy has worked against other organized crime groups, he said. "And that means that what we're focused on is not just individual cases involving a single violator here or a single violator there, but actually looking at those people who adopt, as a business model, the systematic violation of United States law."
Chertoff said the government plans to "come down as hard as possible and break the back" of those organizations.
"Americans are rightly concerned about the need to enforce our immigration laws and our work laws," Chertoff said.
He said that means focusing on those who encourage illegal immigration, by actually smuggling aliens into the country or by employing them "in a systematic fashion" once they get into the country.