INS Changes Directions In Strategy For Confronting Illegal Workers

The Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") is moving away from its prior strategy of randomly raiding individual employer worksites, such as restaurants and factories, for the purpose of locating undocumented workers on the payrolls. INS Commissioner Doris Meissner recently announced that the agency will emphasize criminal activity associated with illegal immigration and will devote its resources to targeting employers who have been suspected of collaborating with both smugglers and document forgers in connection with illegal immigration activity. The purpose of this new strategy is to focus on employers who receive a direct benefit from employing illegal aliens smuggled into the U.S., and thus to penalize those employers who are connected to "smuggling" rings. In attempting to establish a connection between the criminal activity and the employer, the INS will closely examine the method by which the employees were smuggled into the U.S.