3/11/2008

Justice Department Announced Tougher Enforcement of Employment Authorization Verification Violation, Hiring Employment Unauthorized Aliens, and Discrimination Violations with Steep Increased Civil Penalty.

The Attorney General announced that a regulation will be published early next week which will take effect on March 27, 2008. Under the new rule, civil fines will increase by as much as $5,000. Under the new rule and applicable law, civil penalties for violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act are adjusted for inflation. Because these penalties were last adjusted in 1999, the average adjustment is approximately 25 percent. 

Under the specific rounding mechanism of the law, the minimum penalty for knowing employment of an unauthorized alien increases by $100, from $275 to $375. Some of the higher civil penalties are increased by $1,000; for example, the maximum penalty for a first violation increases from $2,200 to $3,200. 

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.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, employers who violate employment eligibility requirements are subject to civil monetary penalties. Employers may be fined under the Act 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. 

For each of these violations, the employer has the right to a hearing before an administrative law judge in the Executive Office for Immigration Review.