What should happen to employers that hire illegal aliens if the illegal turns out to be a minor?

Question

I'm for reform first off but there is a downside to hiring illegals with false documentation. Many of the ones using false documents are actually minors under the age of 18. Isn't that the same as child sweatshops in other countries? Do you support those sweatshops? Or do you think employers hold a responsibility to uphold the integrity of international child labor laws and should they be prosecuted on that level?

Answer 1

They should be given the death penalty. No ifs ands or buts. Not for just minor mexicans but ALL mexicans that are illegal.

Answer 2

They've already under covered child labor violations over at the meat packing plant in Iowa-note-DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa labor officials said Tuesday that they had uncovered dozens of child labor violations at the nation's biggest supplier of kosher meat Officials from the state's Labor Commissioner's Office said their investigation, which spanned several months, uncovered 57 cases of child labor law violations at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, where nearly 400 workers were arrested this spring in the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history.

The types of violations included minors working in prohibited occupations, exceeding allowable hours for youth to work, failure to obtain work permits, exposure to hazardous chemicals and working with prohibited tools.

"The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa's child labor laws," Dave Neil, Iowa Labor Commissioner, said in a statement. "It is my recommendation that the attorney general's office prosecute these violations to the fullest extent of the law."

Juda Engelmayer, an Agriprocessors spokesman, declined to comment.

Federal immigration agents arrested 389 illegal-immigrant workers, mostly Guatemalans, in a May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors plant. Most of the arrested workers pleaded guilty within a week and are serving sentences in federal prisons outside Iowa before being deported.

Allegations of child labor violations were included in an initial affidavit and a search warrant that led to the raid at Agriprocessors, which also operates a plant near Gordon, Neb.

Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, the agency that oversees the labor commission, said Iowa's child labor investigation into Agriprocessors began before the federal immigration raid and was independent of the raid.

Under Iowa law, it is illegal for children under the age of 18 to work in meatpacking plants.

Koonce said the number of violations is much larger than what is typically found in the state of Iowa.

"Typically, when we have child labor issues it's an issue of one or two individuals," she said. "From our point of view, with this investigation, it's a large-scale violation of the law."

Koonce said the full report was not being made public because it is a part of a criminal investigation but she confirmed that 57 children were involved.

(Kids of any nationality don’t need to be in a locker plant with power tools, working too many hours. What happens if they get into a disabling accident? Who will pay the hospital bills? Not the parents and not the plant owners .)..

Answer 3

Ultimately, when you hire someone, you bear the responsibility of determining if the worker is of legal age.

If the worker misrepresents or falsifies that info it gets sticky.

Most likely from what I know, if it comes up that the employee is under age but due to fraud by the employee this was not known, I rather doubt there would be ramifications except to say, don't do it again to the employer. Assuming the employer had used all legal avenues to determine age (SS#) and so on.

The underage employee could well establish liability to those legally determined to be supervising that under age party. The parents most likely, could be charged with improper protection of a minor. Likely only  a wrist slap in the event there is no actual damage done.

Consider: No harm, No foul. The wrist slap could be a fine/probation or it could be loss of the child to Protective Services, depending on the judgment of the court.

This is not legal advice and I am not a lawyer. It is only my ignorant opinion.

Answer 4

Should happen?

They Should be tried for treason.

That is a crime against the constitution and the people of the united states.   Any time you hurt the national security and defile the constitution by breaking federal immigration laws, that should fall under treason.

Answer 5

The fact of being illegal is irrelevant. Being a minor is a different mater  

Answer 6

Prison terms and huge fines.

Most employers will push until they are caught redhanded.

Get a priest or minister in on it, to get them busted!

**Personally, I agree with you!

Answer 7

Unfortunately the system isn't in the employers favor, yet politicians want to punish them.

When anyone applies for a job, the employer cannot ask for identification.  ID can ONLY be requested once the person has been offered the job.  There is no mechanism in place that allows an employer to check the validity of a SS# so the employer hires the person assuming they are being truthful.

Until employers are able to access a government database to verify SS#, nothing will change.  And to create that database has limitations because of our right to have that information protected.  

It's a vicious circle that the government is not willing to halt but are completely willing to penalized employers.  Proving once again that illegals are protected under our laws, employers aren't.

Answer 8

If they are here Illegally,that ends the debate as far as I'm concerned. I don't care if they're minors,that's another issue. If they go back to their home Country,then come back legally then they're fine by me.Until they do that they're simply criminals,and I don't care what happens to criminals.As for prosecuting the Employers,that part sounds like a fine idea,whatever they can do to get employers who hire Illegals.If we can stop the Employers from hiring Illegals,then the Illegals won't come in the first place.

YTP

Answer 9

First, it is not the responsibility of employers to enforce our immigrations laws.  It is one of the few legitimate activities of our Federal Government.

Since it is illegal to hire illegal immigrants the law (questionable though it is) has already been broken.  They are probably also liable for infractions of the child labor laws, but that is secondary.

Answer 10

Nothing this is America.  Our elected officials don't care about laws. They care about making money.

Answer 11

Nothing. There are labor laws guiding the employment of minors. ANY MINOR, they should be protected regardless of legal or illegal status. I have not seen any credible documentation proving "many" illegal minors are being employed, nor have I seen any regarding "sweatshops" employing minors in the US. I have seen articles regarding the "sweatshops" overseas that celebrities use to make money.

Answer 12

1st offense.... 1 year in prison.

2nd offense.... 10 years in prison.

Answer 13

I think any employer who knowingly hires an illegal no matter what the illegals age should lose their business and face jail time.

As far as being under 18, I don't know that there should be any different sentence simply for the fact that the minor may have lied about their age and supported the lie with false documents.