In an intensifying effort to battle illegal immigration, the U.S. government sent notices to 1,000 companies on Wednesday alerting them that auditors will be examining their hiring records. The audits are focused on industries considered vital to U.S. domestic security, including agriculture, banking, energy, information technology, health care and transportation systems. The number of I-9 audits rose from 500 in fiscal year 2008 to 1,444 in 2009. Last year’s audits resulted in the criminal arrest of 196 employers, and 119 convictions. [CNN]
Mayor Bloomberg called national immigration laws “national suicide” during his trip to the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday citing a report showing more than 40% of the 2010 Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. In total, the Partnership for a New American Economy report said, Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or children of immigrants employ more than 10 million people worldwide and generate annual revenue of $4.2 trillion. [The Wall Street Journal]
The Texas Senate early on Wednesday passed a measure pushed by Governor Rick Perry aimed at prohibiting local governments from banning law enforcement officers from asking about the immigration status of people who are lawfully detained or arrested. The measure now heads to the House, which passed a similar bill during the regular legislative session that ended May 30. Texas is one of more than a dozen states where Republicans have sought to tighten immigration laws a year after Arizona passed a high-profile crackdown on illegal immigration. [Reuters]
According to a report released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday, despite assurances that they would curb the practice of transferring detained immigrants to distant detention centers around the country, federal immigration officials continue to move hundreds of thousands of people a year, impeding the detainees’ access to lawyers and extending their time in custody. Human Rights Watch found that after climbing steadily from 1998 to 2005, the number of transfers suddenly skyrocketed, rising to a peak of 405,544 in the 2009 fiscal year, up from 157,560 in 2006. [New York Times]