http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...8382.story
Quote:Republicans want a return to workplace immigration raids.
They say they'll use their new majority in the House to press for more aggressive enforcement without any path to legal status.
January 27, 2011|By Brian Bennett, Washington Bureau
Reporting from Washington — Deportations of illegal immigrants have reached new heights for two years running under President Obama, statistics show, but Republicans say they'll use their new majority in the House to press for more aggressive enforcement without any path to legal status.
Republican lawmakers called on the Obama administration to return to the era of workplace raids to arrest illegal employees, an approach that contrasts sharply with the president's continued push to create a path to citizenship for "responsible young people" and deport only those illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes.
Deportations under Obama have reached new heights for two years running, statistics show, but Republicans said they would use their new majority in the House to press for more aggressive enforcement without any path to legal status.
Large-scale workplace arrests of illegal workers were hallmarks of the George W. Bush administration's approach in its final years. But two years ago Obama decided to shift enforcement efforts to focus on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.
Once again the republicans show their true colors. Instead of going after the "employer", they want to increase raids that target the workers instead. Never mind the fact that it would cost millions to deport those they arrest, when if they target the employer, and put large fines on them, it would cost nothing, and they would actually be making money!
Since back in 1985 when the Reagan immigration plan came to be, employers have pretty much had a free ride. The workers were the target whenever the right need to "stir" up the base using the illegal immigration ploy. Employers simply hired new workers when they were raided, and never had to worry about anything. Of course that's what this has always been about, keeping an illegal work force for corporations so they could keep wages down, and not pay benefits. Republicans have NEVER done any real kind of reform, they just use the problem to get their voters worked up during election time, and then when elections are over, do nothing to fix the problems.
It's obvious they are going to use it once again in the 2012 elections, and they are going to start right now by trying to paint president Obama as lacking when it comes to illegal immigration. It doesn't matter if he has done more than Bush, and it doesn't matter that going after the EMPLOYER is a much better plan than targeting the workers. Their only goal is to make use any "wedge" issue they can to work up their brain dead base!
They know they can stop any kind of "real" immigration reform for at least the nest two years. If they really wanted to fix the problem they would go for "real' reform, and targeting the employers. Let those who came here to work do so, but make employers responsible to make sure they are legal, and prevent employers from laying off current workers so they can hire a cheaper labor force!