House Appropriations Committee Rejects ICE Worksite Enforcement Amendment
This morning, Rep. David Price (D-NC), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Homeland Security, presented the FY09 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill to the House Appropriations Committee. According to Chairman Price’s earlier press release, the bill mandated that $800 million of the funds allocated to ICE be used to identify and remove criminal aliens in an effort to reprioritize ICE’s law enforcement activities. This spending requirement could restrict ICE’s ability to fund other enforcement priorities should the need arise. Additionally, the bill provided approximately $90.7 million for enforcement which is short of the President’s request of $93 million.
To counter this move, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) offered an amendment that would shift from a non-enforcement area of the bill just $2.3 million specifically to help fund ICE’s worksite enforcement efforts. Earlier today, the House Appropriations Committee rejected Rep. Kingston’s amendment in a largely partisan vote.
In support of his amendment, Rep. Kingston told the committee that:
- Workplace enforcement is important because employment is the driving force behind illegal immigration. The demand for fraudulent documents made by illegal aliens creates the thriving criminal enterprises that make them.
- ICE’s Worksite Enforcement arm plays a key role in fighting against illegal immigration and homeland security, promotes national security, protects critical infrastructure and ensures fair labor standards.
- Worksite Enforcement Investigations focus on employers involved in criminal activity or worker exploitation, including:
- alien smuggling, document fraud, human rights abuses and/or other criminal or substantive administrative immigration or customs violations;
- substandard or abusive working conditions;
- employers who utilize force, threat, or coercion, such as threats to have employees deported in order to keep the unauthorized alien workers from reporting the substandard wage or working conditions.
- The presence of illegal aliens at a business does not necessarily mean the employer is responsible. Developing sufficient evidence against employers can take years; therefore, ICE builds worksite investigations in stages.
- No industry, regardless of size, type or location, is exempt from complying with the law. These investigations often find that some of the employers are not paying a living wage, paying overtime, etc.
