Audits, not raids, are the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement strategy, reports the New York Times. In the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) audited over 2,900 business to determine whether illegal immigrants were employed, and, in 2010, it imposed $3 million in civil fines. While audits are less visually dramatic than raids, the effects on workers and businesses are not.

If an audit reveals that a business employs illegal workers, the employer must fire those employees or face criminal charges. For employers in migrant-driven industries, audits significantly and immediately deplete their workforces, making it difficult to conduct business. For dismissed employees, finding work in local or surrounding areas is difficult because potential employers fear being audited themselves.

Though ICE officials contend the audits’ targets are egregious labor and immigration law violators, some contend that the agency is missing its mark by going after employee-friendly businesses. Others, however, contend that the agency’s efforts are insufficient because employees found to be illegal immigrants are being fired instead of being arrested and deported.