U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reporting a 650 percent increase in arrests of illegal hires since the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
ICE made more than 1,500 work site-related arrests during Fiscal Year 2018, resulting in over $10 million in fines for businesses hiring illegal aliens. So far this year, 49 managers were convicted of hiring illegal aliens over Americans.
“Employers see what is happening to other employers around the country who are getting not only prosecuted, but having their operations disrupted by the arrests of illegal workers and saying okay it's time to change,”says Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Vaughan says taking away that incentive for illegal aliens not only cuts down on border crossings, but helps U.S. workers.
“High school dropouts, perhaps people who have served time in jail or prison and are looking to be rehabilitated. It might be disabled people. It's especially going to be teenagers who need these jobs as their first work experience,” she says.
“There is no such thing as a job an American won't do and to suggest otherwise is insulting to Americans.”