Government Getting Serious About Crackdown on Illegal Immigration
NGUYEN: Employers of illegal immigrants should be on notice. There will be an announcement today of a plan to toughen up enforcement of immigration law. Evidence of the new strategy? In a sweeping raid yesterday -- take a look at where it happened -- 1,000 illegal immigrants rounded up in nine states. The key thing? Executives of the company who worked -- who they worked for -- also arrested on criminal charges. Julie Myers is the assistant secretary for ICE, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, and she joins us now to talk about what happened yesterday. A lot of people involved in this. Tell me what went down?</s>JULIE MYERS, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: Thank you for having me. Yesterday, we announced the arrests of seven corporate officers, current and former mid-level managers at IFCO, who are charged with conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants for financial gain.</s>NGUYEN: We want to put up a statement by IFCO, because we tried contacting them and this is what they had to say about what happened yesterday, saying: "It is our policy to comply with all federal and state employment requirements. We are cooperating fully with representatives from ICE and hope to have this matter resolved as soon as possible." But my question to you, why the focus on IFCO? What did this company do?</s>MYERS: Well, there are several things that were very troubling that happened in this case. We had the opportunity to review payroll records from 2005 for IFCO employees and compare them to Social Security no match numbers. And we discovered that over 50 percent of individuals on the payroll in 2005 at IFCO were using bad Social Security numbers -- ones for kids, ones for people who had already died or ones that were otherwise invalid. That's very troubling. Social Security will tell you that over 1 percent is extremely abnormal and here we had over 50 percent.</s>NGUYEN: But in the past, immigration enforcement was simply fining the company. This time, you went down there and you rounded them up, you arrested them, including the executives. Why do this route?</s>MYERS: Well, we found that it wasn't effective to focus on just a small fine or a slap on the wrist. The individuals who are doing this, the companies who are profiting from this are doing this to make money. And so we need to focus on what they are doing when they blatantly violate work site laws.</s>NGUYEN: Are you trying to send a message with this?</s>MYERS: Absolutely. And let me just say, we think most companies want to do the right thing. And when they do that, we want to work with them and help them prevent violations, so that they can be sure that they're not hiring illegal aliens. But when they don't, we're going to come after them and we're going to use criminal charges.</s>NGUYEN: So what are some of the other tough steps that you're going to be taking?</s>MYERS: Well, in the last couple of days, we've announced a number of different work site cases where we brought money laundering charges and forfeiture charges. So individuals who have profited from hiring illegal aliens -- and often exploiting them -- we're going after their houses, their Mercedes and any money that they have, as well.</s>NGUYEN: So, is this just the tip of this iceberg? Are we going to be seeing a little more of incidents like this, where you go in and you arrest them?</s>MYERS: Absolutely. You know, hopefully employers will work with us and they will avoid hiring illegal aliens. But if they don't, they should look out. ICE is there and we're going to work with all our partners in law enforcement to stop them from doing this.</s>NGUYEN: Why such a huge crackdown right now? I mean you've always been targeting companies that are doing illegal things. But is it in response to all the debate lately about illegal immigration?</s>MYERS: Absolutely not. This case has been ongoing for over a year and at this time, we thought there was enough evidence to bring this case forward. Although I note, the investigation is still ongoing. There may be more to come in this case.</s>NGUYEN: And there's a news conference today at 11:00 Eastern to talk about the crackdown. Tell me about what we can expect.</s>MYERS: Absolutely. At the news conference today, Secretary Chertoff will announce a comprehensive interior enforcement strategy for immigration, the first of its kind for ICE, and tell the American people how we're addressing the problem of illegal immigration on the interior, as well as talk about all the specifics of the IFCO case.</s>NGUYEN: We'll be following it. Julie Myers of Immigration & Customs Enforcement, called ICE. We thank you for your time today.</s>MYERS: Oh, thank you so much, Betty.</s>NGUYEN: Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: Oil prices have hit another record high. That means gas prices, of course, are rising. Coming up, we'll see whether it's time for the government to get involved. And in our health series for folks in their 30s, 40s and 50s, men, love and sex -- oh, my. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will tell us how men can keep their love life going strong into their 30s and beyond.</s>NGUYEN: Yowza! Ooh, Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes.