DHS Jacking Up Fines For Employing Illegal Aliens

The cost of doing business just got higher. In a joint briefing with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey announced the government's plan to increase civil fines against employers caught violating federal immigration laws. The new rates were published in the Federal Register on February 26, 2008.

As most employers in this country are all too aware these days, the government is entitled to impose monetary fines for violations of the laws governing the Form I-9 and issues related to it. These fines may be incurred for everything from defects in the form itself, such as failing to fill in the employer's address, to the knowing employment of an unauthorized alien. Indeed, such knowing employment can be actual or constructive, such as where the employer had an obligation to re-verify an individual's employment authorization and failed to do so. The increased