New GOP-Led Bill Adds New Penalties For Hiring Illegal Aliens

For years, the hiring of illegal aliens in the American workforce has become a huge problem. It goes beyond the age-old idea that immigrants are taking American jobs, which they certainly are. But this problem has created unfair practices where companies can underpay for staff, which in turn takes money out of American pockets, and get to profit larger along the way. All off of illegal labor.

However, GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill are coming forward with a solution. A new Republican-backed bill in Washington aims to introduce new penalties for businesses that hire illegal aliens to their workforce knowingly. The Putting American Workers First Act, led by Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, ties up loopholes in the system that have been exploited for years.

The biggest of the bunch is that the bill will classify the hiring of illegal aliens as an unfair labor practice. Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies says alone this opens up a new set of weaponry to use against the practice.

"That brings in another federal agency to work on some of these cases...and is another avenue to keeping these employers in line," she says.

But there is a second part to the bill. One of the issues in making it an unfair labor practice is that it could put a target on backs of business owners who simply did not know they hired an illegal. Which has happened countless times, either through fraud, faked ID's, or other avenues. Illegals have turned around to sue the employer that then fired them and won. Most of that happening under the disaster that was the Biden Administration.

The second part of this bill closes that loophole, while also protecting business owners who did not know.

"Employers found to have hired illegal workers, who may have been committing identity fraud, or found some other way to get a job illegally...those employers are protected under this bill if they fire those workers once they realize they are unauthorized," says Vaughan.

Part of the idea of immigration, both legal and illegal, is some insane idea that everyone deserves a piece of the American pie. They do not, and allowing illegal aliens to take jobs only encourages more mass immigration. Pew Research Center data shows about 9.7 million illegals were in the workforce in 2023, representing roughly 5.6 percent of all workers.

The topic of illegal immigration is at a fever pitch in America right now, especially in the wake of an Afghan illegal alien shooting two National Guard soldiers last week in Washington D.C.

So, if there was ever a time this bill will get massive support, it is now.

"This has a chance...now that our country is experiencing consequences of the worst border crisis in our history," Vaughan says.

She adds, as mentioned, that closing this loophole will deter further illegal immigration by taking those jobs off the table.