Allegiant Solutions

On Friday, the Bush administration said it would increase scrutiny and impose heftier fines on U.S. businesses that employ illegal immigrants as it sought to step up enforcement despite Congress’s failure to reform immigration laws.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, the employers who ignore immigration laws will face an increased likelihood of criminal charges and 25 percent higher penalties.

Currently, employers must verify that their workers are in the United States legally by collecting their Social Security numbers and immigration documents. Those numbers are checked against the U.S. government’s database, and employers are notified of those that don’t match up.

Under the new rule, which will take effect in 30 days, employers notified of a mismatch will have 90 days to confirm that the employee is in the country legally, or fire them if not.

Those who do not comply could face fines of up to $12,500 per violation, a 25 percent increase over the existing maximum, as well as possible criminal charges.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Illegal Immigration, Homeland Security, Worker Authorization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.