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Immigration News
Higher Civil Fines Against Employers for Immigration Violations
February 22, 2008
Effective March 27, 2008, the civil monetary penalties under the Immigration and Nationality Act will be increased by a "cost-of-living adjustment" plus rounding as set forth under specific standards of the law. Employers may be fined for knowingly employing unauthorized aliens or for other violations, including failure to comply with the requirements relating to employment eligibility verification forms, wrongful discrimination against job applicants or employees on the basis of nationality or citizenship, and immigration-related document fraud. The minimum penalty for knowingly employment of an unauthorized alien increases by $100, from $275 to $375. Some of the higher civil penalties are increased by $1,000. The biggest increase under the rounding mechanism raises the maximum civil penalty for multiple violations from the current $11,000 to $16,000. These penalties are assessed on a per-alien basis; thus, if an employer knowingly employed or continued to employ, five unauthorized aliens, that could result in five fines.
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