Steven Camarota, director of research for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, said most cases involving businesses that game the system involve small to midsize companies. Larger companies, he said, tend to have professional human resources employees who know the laws.
Enforcement has picked up some in recent years as the issue has become a political lightning rod, but Camarota said it still isn’t what it should be. “The system is so lax,” said Camarota, whose organization advocates for increased immigration enforcement. “There are, according to the Department of Homeland Security, a quarter million people working on a Social Security number made up of all zeros.”
When agents do go after immigration violations, investigators and prosecutors often focus on workers, not the businesses, in part because the laws are stacked against them, officials say.
In the last five years, a review of case statistics shows that most of the roughly 950 immigration-related cases prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina have involved immigrants caught here illegally or caught using false documents, such as green cards and Social Security cards.
McDonald, the assistant U.S. attorney, said it is easier to prosecute a worker caught with fake documents because there is a narrow set of facts. Prosecuting a business is more difficult because the law requires only that a company owner see a worker’s document. There is no requirement to verify whether the document is legitimate.
Experts say that loophole lets employers do as little as possible to verify workers’ documents. It also offers an easy shield against prosecution. A business owner can simply claim not to be a document expert and unable to distinguish what is or isn’t a valid document.
As a result, prosecutors must be creative and pursue other charges, such as conspiracy charges. In an Ohio case last year, federal authorities charged a temporary employment agency in part for lying to its clients and stating that its employees were legally allowed to work.