When considering all that has to be done to fix our illegal immigration problems, one thing that must be done is to eliminate the incentives that lead people to try to come into the country. There are many such incentives, but one of the biggest is employment. Some employers will pay under the table, and some employers will knowingly hire and harbor illegal aliens. This, too, has to stop.
This is now happening. As Fox News' Bill Melugin reports, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) recently raided a bakery in Texas.
Mr. Melugin's post states in full:
NEW: ICE & HSI in the RGV conducted a worksite operation at a bakery in Los Fresnos, TX, arresting 8 illegal alien employees and charging the owners with federal felonies for harboring & aiding the illegal aliens via 8 USC 1324. This is the law Tom Homan has been repeatedly threatening to use for anyone hiding/concealing/harboring/aiding & abetting illegal aliens. Federal prosecutions of business owners for hiring illegal aliens have been relatively rare in the past.
HSI says the owners, who are both lawful permanent residents in the US, admitted they knew the aliens were in the US illegally and that they harbored them on their personal property via employing them.
Two of the Mexican illegal aliens interviewed by HSI said the same, the owners were aware of their unlawful status and "willfully" harbored them onto the property.
8 USC 1324 is a serious federal crime with potential sentences of years in prison if convicted.
The X post also includes images of the court filings around the case.
It's getting serious, now. The relevant clause of 8 USC 1324, which Melugin cites, is 1324 (1)(A)(iii):
(Any person who) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.
Phase 2, it seems, has begun.
See Related: Border Czar Homan Takes AOC to School After Her Office Hosts Anti-ICE Webinar
Tom Homan 'Working With' DOJ to Determine If AOC's Anti-ICE Webinar Is Breaking the Law
While clearing up these perverse incentives is important, so is the rule of law. As Americans, we are free to disapprove of any given law, but we are not free to ignore them. Many gun owners detest the idea that we must fill out a federal form and pass a background check to exercise a constitutional right, but while we find that law odious, we don't ignore it; it's the law, and most of us bite our lips and go through the process if we want a new gun. We work to have the law changed, but we don't ignore it.
The owners of the bakery in Los Fresnos, Texas, allegedly ignored the law. They are charged with knowingly harboring and hiring people they knew were in the country illegally. There are more employers out there just like this. They, too, need to be a target of ICE and HSI. This enticement has to end.