Although it is said that this is not a drastic shift from the policies under the Bush administration, these new guidelines will have officials building cases against the employers, according to media sources. During the Bush years, many illegal immigrants were arrested in workplace raids, but few of these arrests led to criminal cases against the employers.

The new Department of Homeland Security guidelines specifically mention that employers have not been punished severely enough for these infractions in the past.

“Enforcement efforts focused on employers better target the root causes of illegal immigration,” say the guidelines which were obtained by The New York Times. “[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE must prioritize the criminal prosecution of actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers because such employers are not sufficiently punished or deterred by the arrest of their illegal work force.”

In February, ICE conducted a raid on a manufacturing plant in Washington state resulting in the arrest of 28 people. At the time Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said she was unaware that the raid would take place and called for an investigation into the matter. Earlier this month the workers were released.

The case stems from the arrest of Manuel Fajardo-Santos, a Honduras national who was in the U.S. illegally and was arrested and charged for the sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl. Initially Fajardo-Santos was placed on a $75,000 bond, but bail was raised to $300,000 when U.S. immigration officials placed a detainer on him which would deport him if he were able to make bail.

A lawyer for Fajardo-Santos is arguing that the bail increase was not justified and says the detainer should not have accounted for such a large increase.

But Robert Bianchi, a prosecutor in the state, says it was important to keep Fajardo-Santos in the state to face charges.

“It’s not an issue of going after illegal immigrants,” he said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s that you shouldn’t be able to take advantage of the deportation issue.”

Last year another illegal immigrant from Honduras, Carlos Ulloa-Murillo, was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a child but was deported prior to having a court date.

With less than three weeks until the school’s commencement, Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon has refused an award from the school saying she did not want to appear on the same stage as the president because of his stance on abortion.

In a letter to Notre Dame president Reverend John I. Jenkins, Glendon said she was unhappy to hear that her speech was expected to balance the views of Obama.

“[A commencement] is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision, in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops, to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice,” wrote Glendon.

It is also being reported that Notre Dame alumni are receiving letters asking them to urge the university to cancel Obama’s appearance. NBC affiliate WNDU-TV reports that the letters urge supporters to “cancel Obama, replace Father Jenkins and restore Notre Dame.”

Although there is no evidence that cases of swine flu that have been detected in the U.S. were brought on by illegal immigrants, the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is asking the government to not only place troops at the border, but to halt all unnecessary traffic between the two countries.

ALIPAC’s William Gheen said that current situations would not be able to halt Mexicans with the disease from illegally entering the U.S.

“We have thousands of illegal immigrants entering America each night and we can’t contain or slow the progression of the latest Mexican outbreaks with that happening,” he said. “Even Obama and Napolitano’s weak and inadequate ‘passive surveillance’ directives do not apply to the illegal aliens and drug smugglers coming in tonight.”

The “pandemic” has caused the European Union to urge residents to avoid nonessential travel to both Mexico and the United States, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is urging Americans to postpone travel to Mexico.

As some states are considering laws to allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition rates, the Missouri House passed a bill today that would ban illegals from attending public colleges in the state.

According to the Associated Press, the bill passed 125-30 and must still pass through the state Senate before heading to the governor’s desk.

In February a bill was proposed in Washington state to make undocumented students eligible for financial aid. The bill would allow illegal immigrants with a family income under $37,500 to apply for $6,000 a year in financial aid to public universities in the state.

Currently, 10 states allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates to public colleges.

This week the College Board, a group of 5,000 colleges across the country, urged congress to pass the Dream Act which would allow students who have lived in the U.S. since the age of 15 to apply for legal residence after graduation from high school.

Heineman says the new law offers no gray areas regarding who is eligible for state benefits and will also put an emphasis on employers to make sure their workers have legal status.

“This law is very straightforward. If you are here legally, you are entitled to receive state and local benefits,” he said, according to Nebraska radio station KOLN. “If you are here illegally, you are not entitled to state and local benefits.”

However, there will be some exceptions to the law. Current legislation which allows children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to colleges in Nebraska will stay in place.

Employers will also be expected to make sure their employees are not illegal immigrants and Heineman said the state will be assisting companies in verifying its workers’ immigration status by providing the E-Verify system to them for free.

Last month the Boston Globe, citing figures from the Department of Homeland Security, said the use of the E-Verify system was increasing with an average of 1,000 new organizations using the service each week.

In February agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 28 workers at Yamato Engine Specialists where officials said the immigrants - mostly from Mexico and Central America - had used falsified documents to receive jobs.

This is the latest move in what appears to be a shift in tactic from the Obama administration on illegal immigration enforcement. Last week the Washington Post cited unnamed sources who said the Department of Homeland Security would be shifting prosecution from illegal workers to the companies who employ them.

But Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said the Obama administration is not taking care of the entire problem.

“Worksite enforcement depends on holding illegal aliens and the employers who hire them accountable, but the administration is only tackling part of the problem,” Stein said. “How do you enforce the law against the people who hire illegal workers, and not enforce the law against the workers themselves who are also breaking the law?”

According to reports, the U.S. Border Patrol received word that a group of illegal immigrants was seen entering a storm drain that connects San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Following the report, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a robot into the pipe but was unable to find the people.

Late Saturday ICE officials were finally able to remove the eight illegals, including a 16-year-old boy, and were said to have suffered no serious injury.

The 30-inch-wide pipe, which runs under California’s Interstate 5, is about 100 yards long and ends in American territory, just south of the San Ysidro Port of Entry - which according to the Associated Press, see’s about 40,000 vehicles pass through onto American soil each day.

Many experts have said the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. has slowed with many returning back to their home countries. Last month secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that the drop in immigration numbers is a result of the poor economy.

Earlier this week Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio received a letter from the Justice Department informing him that it was looking into allegations that his office targets people for illegal immigration offenses based on their race.

Today Democratic leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives asked Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano to look into similar complaints.

But Arpaio, who is infamous for his outdoor prison called Tent City and forcing hardened criminals to wear pink jumpsuits, says he is not fazed by the investigations.

“I’m not concerned about it,” he told the East Valley Tribune. “We’re going to continue enforcing the law and nothing changes. If they have any problems, call the FBI.”

Michigan representative John Conyers, head of the House Judiciary Committee said the legislature is not looking to persecute anyone but noted that law enforcement in the U.S. cannot “interpret the law their own way to harass or use racial strategies to determine who they arrest.”

Last month Arpaio made news when he announced a plan to segregate 200 illegal immigrants who were in Durango Jail from the rest of the prison population.

USA Today reports that the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Immigration Studies believe that failures to require the use of the E-Verify system in the hiring of employees for jobs created by the stimulus package could result in up to 300,000 construction jobs going to illegal immigrants.

The White House has said that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - otherwise known as the economic stimulus bill - could create up to 2 million jobs in and around the construction industry.

Critics of the groups say they are using faulty numbers and feel the groups are attempting to scare the public.

“Those are fear tactics. … ‘The immigrants are here to take your job,’” Cabrera told USA Today. “I think that we really should be focusing on economic progress for all.”

According to figures obtained from the Department of Homeland Security, the Boston Globe reported last week that the number of employers across the country using E-Verify had increased in 2008 with an added 1,000 companies using the service each week.