Public Safety

60 S.D. Businesses Inspected For Illegal Hiring

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published November 20, 2009 at 1:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

60 S.D. Businesses Inspected For Illegal Hiring

Federal officials will inspect the hiring records of 60 employers in San Diego to see if they employ illegal immigrants. It is part of a nationwide inspection of 1,000 businesses.

Federal officials will inspect the hiring records of 60 employers in San Diego to see if they employ illegal immigrants. It is part of a nationwide inspection of 1,000 businesses.

Federal officials say tips led them to the 60 businesses they'll inspect in San Diego.

Officials won't release the names of the companies. They say all are related to public safety.

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John Morton is the nation's chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He says the crackdown represents the Obama Administration's shift in focus to the employer.

"We are really in this to change the national enforcement perspective and to address the magnet of much of our illegal immigration to the country and that's labor here in the United States."

Two years ago, Congress members called for a get tough approach to employers before they could pass immigration reform.

Federal officials audited 39 San Diego businesses last July. They've cleared 25. Five could be fined and nine investigations are still underway.

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Public Safety Immigration

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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