Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin will soon review a plan to expand worksite inspections, White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday.
“I know the worksite enforcement plan just cleared last week out of HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] because I asked for the plan,” Homan told Fox News. He added:
I think the gentlemen I brought in did a tremendous job. A lot of it is focusing on not just worksite enforcement, but those who use fraudulent IDs to steal your Social Security numbers. We’ll prosecute them.
And for employers that knowingly hire illegal aliens, it’s not just about arresting aliens. It’s about holding employers accountable so they don’t try employing illegal aliens.
So I think we’ll move quickly on that. I just saw the draft from HSI last week, so I think the secretary will probably see it this week or next week. And I’m all for it.
Homan’s comments are a rare look inside the differences of opinion within the Trump administration.
Many top officials, as well as President Donald Trump, zig-zag forward between rival interest groups within the Republican party, including business donors and populist voters.
Immigration politics are tough, Trump told a roomful of Latino allies on September 30. “Because they’ll say ‘You’re too tough,’ or ‘You’re too soft.’ ‘Get tougher!’ ‘Get softer!’ No matter what you do, it’s always tough.”
He added, “We have to have the votes.”
Trump has prodded agency officials to avoid worksite enforcement operations in the agriculture, construction, slaughterhouse, hotel, and restaurant sectors. He wants to avoid economic disruptions, price rises — and possibly pushback from GOP donors and supporters.
Those sectors use illegals — or migrants with student visas — to cut workers’ wages, minimize technology spending, and maximize profits. Also, many companies use illegal migrants because their marketplace rivals gain economic advantages by using cheap and “disposable” illegals.
President Joe Biden’s deputies halted worksite raids and tried to legalize illegal migrant workers.
The Trump administration’s inactivity on worksites is obscured by the department’s public focus on deporting “the Worst of the Worst” criminal migrants.
“ICE is not conducting worksite operations in Kansas,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said via X on September 25. “ICE law enforcement has conducted operations targeting heinous criminals including murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers and illegal aliens with final orders of removal.”
Mullin is a successful businessman in Oklahoma with, likely, some sympathy for fellow business owners.
Republican populists, however, want DHS to arrest and deport all illegals, not just the two million who have already been sent home:
Mullin also knows that mass migration wreaks havoc in a free-market economy. On October 7, for example, Mullin told Breitbart News, “If you were to AI the question ‘How do you turn a red state blue, or how do you turn a country from democracy to socialism?’ — it’ll tell you 100 percent of the time you’ve got to change demographics.“ [emphasis added]
The conflicting concerns may help explain why GOP leaders have reduced the legalized migration of eventual citizens into the United States while setting fewer curbs on the inflow of non-voting foreign contract workers, such as H-1B workers.
Pro-American activists have long argued that the agencies should pressure employers via low-profile visits to check companies’ hiring records. I-9 investigations avoid street protests and also raise the legal risks for CEOs who do not fire the illegals who have fraudulent documents. (I-9 investigations refer to a form, called the “I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification,” that employers must file testifying that a hired person is allowed to work in the United States.)
“That’s the area where … management at DHS could really make a difference and move the President’s agenda of mass deportations significantly,” Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Breitbart News.
“Worksite law enforcement needs to happen,” Homan told Fox News. “We need to send a message to the whole world: It’s illegal to knowingly hire illegal immigrants to work — and if you can’t get a job, you’re not going to come.”