We reported last week that administration officials are planning to concentrate their immigration enforcement efforts on employers rather than employees. For employers, this sounds like a bad thing, but according to this e-mail from Tamar Jacoby, president of Immigration Works USA, that’s not necessarily the case:

This will be the hallmark of DHS efforts going forward – tougher worksite enforcement targeting employers. But read the guidelines carefully: I believe they are actually good news for employers trying to comply with the law. Based on my conversations with DHS officials, I expect to see the department emphasizing the distinction between bad-actor employers and those trying to play by the rules in a broken system. I expect future worksite enforcement actions will be more carefully planned and targeted to focus on criminal activity like document and visa fraud. The new policy will be tough but also more predictable and could, I believe, help to level the playing field by zeroing in on employers who are deliberately and egregiously violating the law. Still, make no mistake: the enforcement noose is tightening, and this makes it all the more important that we step up our efforts to press for reform.