For decades, America’s immigration debate has revolved around border walls, asylum claims, and deportations. Today, it’s about brutal killings of American citizens. But one crucial part of the painful discourse rarely gets attention: the employers who hire undocumented workers who face almost no consequences for doing so.

Under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), employers are required to verify the employment authorization of all new hires and maintain proper records. The law’s “Employer Sanctions” provision allows for civil fines and even criminal penalties against businesses that knowingly hire people without authorization.

In theory, that should discourage illegal hiring. In practice, it’s barely enforced. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducts workplace raids, the employees — those with the least power — are the ones arrested. The employers who signed their paychecks and looked the other way almost never face charges.

It strains belief that companies employing dozens or even hundreds of undocumented workers do so “unknowingly” claiming that use of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, is sufficient. Many employers otherwise perform only superficial efforts at verification of legal status of employees, confident that enforcement agencies will target laborers, not management. Yet ICE agents interviewing those same workers can identify illegal workers with ease. Why can’t the employers?

Each year, thousands of undocumented workers are detained or deported. Yet, on average, only about a dozen employers are prosecuted for hiring them. That imbalance has turned employer sanctions into a hollow statute — and it sends a clear message: breaking immigration laws apply only to workers, not to those who exploit them.

Both parties share the blame. For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have lacked the political will to enforce the law against employers. Doing so risks angering powerful industries — from agriculture to construction to hospitality — that rely heavily on low-wage immigrant labor. If we truly want to address illegal immigration, the solution isn’t worksite raids or more detention centers — it’s accountability at the top.

Incredibly, the Trump administration plans to hire 10,000 more ICE agents. Instead of sending them to round up desperate workers, why not assign them to investigate and prosecute employers who hire those workers in the first place? If businesses knew they could face heavy fines or jail time for employing undocumented labor, the incentive to hire illegally would vanish.

Imagine the ripple effect: If there were no jobs awaiting them, far fewer people would risk their lives crossing deserts or paying smugglers to reach the border. Those who still come — fleeing violence or persecution — could still apply for asylum as the law intends.

This change would also expose an uncomfortable truth: America’s economy depends on immigrant labor. If employers could no longer rely on undocumented workers, they would have two choices — raise wages to attract U.S. workers or push Congress to expand legal, regulated work visa programs.

That would be a healthy reckoning. A modernized system could allow immigrants to work legally under fair conditions, with oversight from the Department of Labor to ensure safety, fair pay, and compliance. Employers would follow one transparent process, and the black market for labor would finally end.

Critics will argue that enforcing employer sanctions could disrupt industries and raise consumer prices. Perhaps–but the alternative is a status quo built on hypocrisy and inequality. We cannot rely on the traditional, failed strategies that have brought us untrained ICE agents, the killing of Americans, and the destruction of families and communities alike.

The longer term solution will require amending current immigration laws. But today it only requires political courage to enforce the ones we already have. True immigration reform starts not at the border, but in the boardroom.

Until we hold employers accountable, America’s immigration debate will remain what it has always been: loud on rhetoric, silent on responsibility.

Federico Peña served as Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy under the Clinton administration. He was mayor of Denver from 1983 to 1991. He has been a businessman since 1998.

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