Going After Illegal Aliens
How concerned are you about violence against agents?
It's unfortunately the case that when you push criminal organizations hard, they will sometimes push back. And an unfortunate metric of success is that we are starting to see them get angry because we are eating into their criminal livelihood. I told the Border Patrol that we will equip them with whatever they need to make sure they are adequately protected and they can respond and defend themselves.
Countries like Vietnam and Thailand sometimes refuse to take back illegal aliens deported from the United States.
This has got to become a priority for this country in terms of dealing with foreign governments. I think if the public becomes aware that certain countries are dragging their heels about taking their people back, that is going to start to become a trade issue and a tourism issue--and a public issue. We're going to have to lean a little hard.
What about sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants?
Right now there seems to be some genuine ambivalence or uncertainty on what employers should do when they get a letter from Social Security [saying a check on an employee came back with questions about the validity of a number]. They're not sure if they're prohibited from inquiring further. We have to clear that up. We also have pilot programs where people can log in and check [their employees'] Social Security numbers. We are going to expand those and make those more accessible. If we do that, then we have a right to say, "If you don't check, then we're going to punish you."
Would you still be doing this now if not for the Minutemen and their very visible appearance on the border this summer?
I think public agitation in general has been a big force here. I knew when I got on the job that this was going to be one of the top three or four things that I would have to deal with. You can go into any diner, anywhere in the country, and hear people talking about this issue. You figure of all the topics that people are going to talk about [when you're DHS secretary], you think it's going to be terrorism. In reality though, they want to talk about illegal immigration.
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