Federal authorities have arrested hundreds of potentially undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles this month, targeting day laborers at a Home Depot, factory workers at a downtown apparel company and cleaners at car washes across the city.
But the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents aren’t going after the business owners who may have illegally hired these workers.
President Trump’s crackdown on immigration has spared small and large U.S. employers that rely on thousands of undocumented employees, even though hiring undocumented workers can be a criminal offense.
“There are some instances of criminal prosecutions of people for knowingly hiring unauthorized workers, but it is extremely rare,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. “There’s not an appetite for that kind of enforcement.”
Instead, the recent raids have affected rank and file workers, most of whom were detained suddenly and face deportation.
Here’s what experts say about whom ICE targets and why:
Who relies on undocumented labor?
Laborers without legal authorization to live and work in the U.S. make up a significant portion of the workforce, especially in industries such as agriculture and hospitality, said Jean Reisz, co-director of the USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic.
At least half of California’s 900,000 farmworkers are thought to be undocumented, The Times reported last year. The state is home to more immigrants than anywhere else in the country, a portion of which don’t have documentation, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
“The U.S. has always relied on immigrant labor, and has always relied on undocumented immigrant labor,” Reisz said. “That’s just a reality, and when you have these big enforcement actions, there’s always going to be some tension.”
Last week, Trump acknowledged on his social media platform Truth Social that his immigration policies were harming farmers, hotels and restaurants. Shortly after, he temporarily paused raids on those businesses in a likely effort to keep company leaders in his corner.
Targeting the employers themselves, some of whom Trump relies on for support, would be counterproductive to his agenda, Reisz said.
“If the administration were to say they’re going to come down on every business owner who has hired someone in violation of U.S. law, I think that would politically be a bad decision,” she said.
What consequences could employers face?
Although it’s not regularly enforced, a 1986 federal law made it a crime to knowingly hire someone without authorization to work in the country. Before that, a stipulation known as the Texas Proviso created a loophole that gave a pass to employers to hire noncitizens.
Violating the Immigration Reform and Control Act could mean fines and even incarceration, depending on the number of violations, Arulanantham said. But violators are rarely prosecuted.
“There’s a very long history of immigration enforcement agents not pursuing employers for hiring undocumented people, but very aggressively pursuing the undocumented people themselves,” Arulanantham said. “Most employers get zero consequence, not even a minor criminal conviction.”
While it’s unlawful to work in the U.S. without documentation, doing so isn’t a criminal offense.
“Civil consequences can be far more severe than criminal consequences,” Arulanantham said. “Especially if you’re being deported after you’ve lived here for a long time and you’re going to be separated from your family.”
“Even if the law were actually enforced against these employers, it still wouldn’t give them consequences that are as draconian and harsh as the consequences that flow to the workers,” he said.
How can employers tell who’s authorized to work in the U.S.?
Previous reporting by The Times suggests that many businesses in California turn a blind eye when it comes to signing on undocumented workers.
A federal program called E-Verify makes it easy for employers to validate the status of potential hires and ensure they aren’t unknowingly employing someone without proper authorization. But the program is widely underused, especially in California, where only about 16% of employers are enrolled.
Participation in the program is voluntary for everyone except federal contractors and other businesses that receive money from the government, Reisz said. The program is largely ignored because many companies are dependent on undocumented laborers and don’t want to be forced to reject their services.
Employers told The Times last year that requiring the use of E-Verify would devastate their businesses, unless other overhauls to immigration policy allowed them access to more workers.
Why aren’t employers facing consequences?
Historically, it’s been in the country’s best economic interest to allow undocumented labor, experts say. There are not enough workers to fill all the jobs a healthy, growing U.S. economy generates, especially in low-wage industries.
Workers who fear deportation are less likely to organize to demand better conditions or wages, said Arulanantham.
It wouldn’t make sense for Trump to arrest the business owners he wants as allies, Reisz said, and wouldn’t align with his stance on immigration.
“It doesn’t fit the narrative to penalize employers,” Reisz said. “The narrative surrounding immigration enforcement under the Trump administration is that there are dangerous criminals coming across the border and taking our jobs.”
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