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Stiffer Fines Proposed for Employing Illegal Aliens
Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens will receive stiffer fines under an inflation adjustment procedure recently announced by the Bush Administration.
“Work site enforcement and interior enforcement are critical elements of a strategy to deal with this issue of illegal immigration,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who on Feb. 22 conducted a joint news conference in the nation’s capital with Attorney General Michael Mukasey to highlight the Administration’s immigration enforcement and border security efforts.
“We are increasing civil fines imposed on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants by 25%, the maximum allowed by law and the first such increase since 1999,” said Mukasey. “We are also working with the Department of Homeland Security to increase criminal prosecutions against the most egregious employer offenders.”
Chertoff said that these actions are being taken “to continue to make it less appealing for people to break the law” and as a way to “keep that pressure up to make sure people are compliant with the law.”
The new rule increasing employer fines was published in the Federal Register during the week of Feb. 25, and is set to take effect on March 27.
Chertoff said that his agency plans to issue additional immigration rules in the future. One rule would require federal contractors to participate in E-Verify, an Internet-based identity and work authorization verification system, which is currently a voluntary program.
The other proposed rule is a revision to the controversial no-match rule that would have forced employers to fire their workers for unresolved name and Social Security number mismatches. A coalition of civil rights, business and labor groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had sued to halt that rule's implementation. The rule was then stayed by order of the U.S. District Court after a finding that Homeland Security had failed to assess the impact on small businesses, and that many legal workers, including U.S. citizens, faced termination because of inaccurate Social Security Administration records. Homeland Security subsequently agreed to withdraw the original rule in light of the court's findings. The provisions of the proposed new rule are expected to be announced in March.
For more information, e-mail David Crump at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8491.
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