Ossoff: Feds Should Ensure Illegal Immigrants Receive Good Wages
Georgia Dem says ICE agents should be more concerned with labor laws than immigration status
MADISON, Ga.—Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff said that federal agents should be deployed to ensure that illegal immigrants receive good wages instead of enforcing federal immigration law.
A resident asked Ossoff how he would deal with people who were illegally brought to the United States as minors. The Democrat went on to chastise the "brutal conditions" facing workers on Georgia farms, arguing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents should be used not to detain illegal immigrants but rather to verify that such workers are treated well.
"When federal agents arrive at one of these farms, it should be to make sure people are being paid the minimum wage, working in humane conditions," Ossoff said at the Sunday event, adding that the U.S. should "show humanity and compassion for those who are part of our society but living in the shadows."
Ossoff's comments came months after the Democrat indicated his support for so-called sanctuary cities, stating that local law enforcement should not enforce federal immigration law because it undermines the "bonds of trust between local law enforcement and local communities." Ossoff has also praised House speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D., Calif.) $3 trillion HEROES Act, which includes unemployment payments for illegal immigrants.
Center for Immigration Studies policy director Jessica Vaughan told the Washington Free Beacon that Ossoff's "plan" reflects "little knowledge about illegal immigration or immigration enforcement."
"What I find troubling about that comment is that it indicates that [Ossoff] wants ICE to enforce wage and hour laws and other labor laws, which is not their job," Vaughan said. "That suggests that he does not want ICE to enforce immigration laws, and worksite enforcement is the type of immigration enforcement that does the most to deter illegal immigration. It's very effective, and we need to have more of it, not less of it."
The Ossoff campaign did not return a request for comment.
In addition to his past comments calling on local police to cease cooperating with federal agents against illegal immigration, Ossoff recently campaigned with former Obama administration official Julián Castro, who has faced criticism from fellow Democrats over his support for "open borders." Castro centered his failed presidential campaign on decriminalizing illegal border crossings and supported government-provided health insurance for illegal immigrants.
"This is tantamount to declaring publicly that we have open borders," former Obama DHS chief Jeh Johnson said of Castro's plan. "That is unworkable, unwise, and does not have the support of a majority of American people or the Congress."
Ossoff is running to unseat Republican senator David Perdue in Georgia's January 5 runoff election. Perdue has criticized the Democrat for supporting "lawless sanctuary cities."
New DHS Report Paints Picture of Biden’s Immigration Challenges
Lax immigration enforcement under Biden could bring about a new border crisis
New data from the Department of Homeland Security capture the changing face of illegal immigration, revealing dramatic shifts that will shape President-elect Joe Biden's hopes for comprehensive immigration reform.
The report from the Office of Immigration Statistics captures a transition as the share of lone adults, particularly from Mexico, declined, replaced by children and adults traveling with them from the "northern triangle" countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. That change in turn has led to a dramatic decline in the number of individuals reported, as members of the latter group rely on more accommodative legal protections to remain in the country far longer than the former.
The report also shows that individuals who were not detained after apprehension are much more likely to still be in the country. That's a sign, acting deputy homeland security director Ken Cuccinelli wrote, that "catch and release" policies do not work.
That such policies, including an expansion of the use of "alternatives to detention," are top of the Biden immigration agenda augurs poorly for the incoming president. The challenges that changing migration patterns posed to the Obama and Trump administrations are unlikely to go away under Biden, teeing up yet another border crisis and ensuing political meltdown.
The report combines data from myriad sources to track the "lifecycle" of would-be entrants apprehended over the past five years at the southwestern border, providing information on the immigration status of some 3.5 million apprehensions. Its coverage bookends two major migrant crises: a surge of unaccompanied minors in 2014, and a much larger surge of both families and unaccompanied kids in late 2018 and early 2019.
These two crises are part of the changing face of migration. Whereas in the period of 2000 to 2004, 97 percent of all those apprehended were Mexicans—many of them lone adults seeking work—by 2019 that share had dropped to just 24 percent. By contrast, arrivals from the "northern triangle" countries rose from 44 percent of apprehensions in 2014 to 64 percent in 2019, amid the second crisis. Many of these individuals were children, often quite young, and adults traveling with them, claiming to be their family members.
Those demographic differences strongly determine what happens to an individual after he or she is apprehended. Single adults are quickly deported, with 78 percent of those apprehended over the preceding five years repatriated by Q2 2020. But family arrivals and children are not—just 32 percent of the latter, and only 11 percent of the former, had their cases resolved as of Q2 2020.
Such migration is likely to rise under Biden, who has promised to substantially reduce immigration enforcement and intends to pursue an amnesty, both of which could incentivize further arrivals. Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that apprehensions at the border rose year-on-year in the immediate lead-up to and aftermath of Biden's election, which may indicate a rising tide of migrants eager to take advantage of a more lax immigration regime.
Those arrivals will enjoy the same preexisting immigration challenges that the Center for Immigration Studies' Andrew Arthur identified as driving the low number of deportations for families and children. "Loopholes" in federal immigration law incentivize the bringing of children from noncontiguous countries and delay almost indefinitely their immigration court process.
In particular, abuse of the asylum system, and of provisions which require the release from detention of minors and their guardians, results in large populations who arrive, are released, and never show up for subsequent immigration processing. According to the report, just 1 percent of those detained had unexecuted removal orders, while 55 percent of those released were still listed as unresolved.
The reason for this dynamic is not that those who arrive at the southwestern border have reasonable claims to be asylees: Just 14 percent of initial applicants are eventually granted asylum. Similarly, among those cases resolved, roughly 13.6 percent were granted some relief, while the rest were summarily deported.
In other words, the report indicates a large and persistent challenge to the U.S. immigration system, with an ever-growing pool of illegal entrants and an ever-expanding backlog of immigration court cases jamming up the process of legal immigration and the limited resources of DHS.
That dynamic is likely to continue, and even expand, under the Biden DHS. Biden's promised undoing of many of President Donald Trump's tougher enforcement tools, including the "Remain in Mexico" policy and the limitation of "reasonable fear" asylum claims, could exacerbate the inflow of people driven by the "loopholes" Arthur and Cuccinelli identify. So too could the deployment of "alternatives to detention," which Cuccinelli specifically singled out as problematic.
The Biden team, likely spooked by the surging apprehension numbers, has signaled that it will slow-roll the undoing of Trump's immigration agenda. But it has not promised any of the "targeted legislative fixes" endorsed by Cuccinelli in his letter, leaving in place the adverse incentives. That could lead to another humanitarian crisis at the southwestern border—a ticking time bomb Biden's team has evinced little interest in defusing.
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