In his state of the state speech in February, Gov. Rick Perry declared, "We must establish criminal penalties for employers who knowingly hire workers who are here in violation of immigration law."

Tough words, but said with a wink and a nod.

The nod was to the virulent anti-immigrant sentiments of much of Perry's constituency, but the wink was to his business backers.

Perry's only immigration legislative push was for a weak "anti-sanctuary city" bill that he declared an "emergency" despite the fact that he wouldn't identify any actual sanctuary cities in the state.

The only immigration-related bill that would make it a state crime, punishable by up to two years in jail, for employers to knowingly hire illegal immigrants became a national joke because it conspicuously exempted employers of maids and gardeners.

It's no secret that many generous backers of Perry and the Republicans in the construction, agricultural and restaurant businesses depend on immigrant labor. The powerful Texas Association of Business testified against the bill authored by Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball , and it died in committee without the dignity of a vote.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is stepping up criminal prosecution of employers.

According to a New York Times story Sunday, whereas the Bush administration threw workers in prison and let the employers off light, the Obama administration is doing just the opposite.

The politics are fairly obvious. A Republican administration, backed by big business, busted the illegal workers.

The current Democratic administration, backed by unions, is busting employers.

But there is a policy issue as well.

'Shut that spigot off'

Alberto Cardenas, former counsel to Sen. Kay Bailey Huchison and currently attorney for Americans for Immigration Reform, a Houston-based business group, said the approach may be "smart."

"If you go after the magnet and the magnet is a job here, you can shut that spigot off," he said, admittedly mixing his metaphors. "The administration is scaring out the bad actors and those thinking about becoming bad actors."

The Obama administration dramatically stepped up the number of employee audits, conducting more than 2,700 audits in its first two years, more than in the eight years of the Bush administration.

Critics charged Obama with being soft on immigration because most audits did not result in arrests and deportation of workers. But they did require employers to dismiss undocumented workers and resulted in more than $40 million in fines, also more than during Bush's eight years.

But Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a national gathering of editorial writers in Dallas last September that this wasn't enough.

"Too often, the financial penalties are too small to make a difference," she said.

Bigger crackdown

According to the New York Times, the administration is taking the matter a step further, "sharpening their crackdown on the hiring of illegal immigrants by focusing increasingly tough criminal charges on employers while moving away from criminal arrests of the workers themselves."

In Tucson, the owners of a chain of Mexican restaurants and their accountants were charged with felonies in April after raids of 14 restaurants in Arizona and California.

Each could theoretically receive more than 80 years in prison, although sentencing guidelines will be for less.

Of 42 illegal workers swept up, one was charged with an unrelated crime, 13 detained or deported for civil immigration violations and the rest remained as witnesses or as possibly eligible to gain legal status, reported the Times.

The owners were charged with keeping two sets of books and cheating workers out of overtime pay and the government out of taxes on more than $400,000 in wages.

Last year 119 employers were convicted of crimes, including a Dallas ex-FBI agent.

Ann Cox pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and received two years of probation and an $18,000 fine in connection with hiring six illegal aliens for a single Schlotzky's restaurant in Rockwall.

rick.casey@chron.com