Deported Immigrants Return To Claim Money

Illegal immigrants recently deported after highly publicized federal raids of various companies easily returned to the United States days later to claim unpaid wages from their former employers.

Immigration officials basked in the media spotlight during their nationwide raids of businesses that hired illegal aliens earlier this year, but they have failed to address how many of the deported easily came back to sue their former employers for unpaid wages.

At least four Mexicans recently deported from Southern California have bragged in the media that they returned to the U.S. a few days later with the help of a smuggler. Immigration agents had dropped the illegal aliens off in Tijuana and they simply had relatives in the U.S. send them money to be smuggled back north. The illegal immigrants remain in the country and say they will stay until they collect their money.

In the meantime, the illegal immigrants are utilizing U.S. courts to sue the companies that illegally hired them. In Southern California about 200 illegal aliens were arrested at 60 worksites, including some of the area’s most popular restaurants. Many, including the four who crossed the border days after being deported, have actually joined a federal lawsuit against their U.S. employer for overtime pay.

Some, with the help of the Mexican consul in Southern California, have even filed complaints with the Department of Labor, the federal agency that protects all U.S. workers regardless of their immigration status. While it may seem admirable that this government agency does not allow discrimination, the Department of Homeland Security should be deeply concerned at how easily a violator of U.S. law could slip back into the country through the southern border.

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