Former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon on Tuesday demanded aggressive immigration enforcement targeting corporate America, calling for renewed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and public arrests of CEOs who knowingly hire illegal workers.
Speaking on his show “Bannon’s War Room,” Bannon railed against policies that he said reward illegal immigration, pointing to Texas as a prime example. Bannon demanded more aggressive ICE raids at job sites and urged the government to prosecute executives who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
“I keep saying this is why I’d like to see more ICE raids, Kristi Noem, at businesses. And let’s perp walk out a couple of CEOs and COOs that know that they’re hiring these people illegally,” Bannon said. “That’s the magnet. If you want to stop it, you got to stop it. You give people fair warning. You can’t do this. The legislation they put in after the meltdown of the stock market back in the early 2000s from the internet stocks, Sarbanes-Oxley, I think it is, they put Sarbanes-Oxley in.”
Bannon said Republicans must back legislation to empower local sheriffs and ICE agents.
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“In Texas, you’re still paying for in-state tuition for illegal aliens. Suck on that for a second. How does that make you feel? All the hard work you’ve done. They got to get a bill to get the sheriffs, the resources, and the bandwidth to work together,” Bannon said. “I mean, this is mind-boggling. You got to do it, but it’s mind-boggling. It’s still being fought. The E-Verify. E-Verify would drop it dramatically. They hate E-Verify. Hate it. That’s because it goes in automatically and shows who the illegal aliens are.”
Bannon said the same standard should apply to illegal hiring practices. Under his proposed approach, executives would get two warnings, but on the third offense they could face serious legal consequences. (RELATED: ‘We’ve Got To Set Things Right Down There’: Steve Bannon Warns Corporations Hijacking Texas GOP Strongholds)
“One of the key parts was it put CFOs and CEOs on the hook, I think, for civil and criminal penalties, and things got sorted out. I’ve always said on this, they got to do that. The same thing for the illegal alien hiring,” Bannon said. “And you get three shots. First time, OK, you get a little penalty. You get, hey, you can’t do that again. Second time you get some penalty. But third time, maybe you got some criminal activity here because you’re basically enticing criminals who are illegal aliens to come in and work and take American jobs.”
Bannon pushed back against the argument that illegal immigrants only take jobs Americans refuse to do.
“And they say ‘Oh, Steve, people don’t want those jobs.’ Well, hey, let’s get the wages right. And we’ll see. If that’s the case, then people can work out appropriate programs to work with that. But right now, it’s just chaos,” Bannon said.
ICE has intensified efforts to hold employers accountable for hiring undocumented workers, leading to substantial penalties for several companies. For instance, Durable Inc., an aluminum products manufacturer in Illinois, was fined over $329,000 after an investigation revealed that 92% of its workforce lacked legal authorization to work in the U.S.
Additionally, Atrium Companies and Advanced Containment Systems Inc. each agreed to forfeit $2 million and implement revised immigration compliance programs after admitting to hiring unauthorized workers. These enforcement actions underscore the federal government’s commitment to enforcing immigration laws and the significant consequences businesses face for noncompliance.
In February, Ping Ping Zheng, owner of Kamiya 86 Asian Bistro in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty to harboring undocumented workers for commercial gain. According to the Department of Justice, Zheng employed these workers, provided them with rent-free housing, transportation between the residence and the restaurant, and paid them in cash without withholding taxes. She faces up to 10 years in federal prison, with sentencing pending.
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