2/25/2008 - Attorney General Announces Higher Fines Against Employers for Violation of Immigration Laws
On February 22, Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced a rule that will increase the civil fines assessed against employers for violations of various immigration provisions - in some cases the increase can be as much as $5000 per incident (effectively, per foreign national). The rule implementing the new fines becomes effective March 27, 2008.
The new rule works by adjusting current fines upward for inflation, then implementing a rounding mechanism - apparently to keep the fines from coming out to odd or unusual numbers thus making these laws appear even more arbitrary than they already do. As the fines were last adjusted for inflation in 1999, the increase is a substantial one - an average of about 25%.
The violations covered by these fines include not only employment of individuals not authorized to work, but also paperwork violations for improper completion of the I-9 form and discrimination violations against applicants or employees on the basis of nationality or citizenship.
Getting caught for immigration violations is about to get much more expensive for employers. While some of the penalties (discrimination in particular) are easily avoided with proper training and good faith, this will increase the downside to the Catch-22 in which many employers already find themselves - severe penalties for employment of those without authorization but no path in existing law to sponsor workers in many positions for valid employment-authorized visas.
U.S. employers which cannot locate sufficient qualified and willing U.S. labor and are resisting off-shoring the work.