What penalties do employers face?

The delay in processing the work permits of nearly 3,000 contract workers by the start of this New Year has resulted in restaurants and stores closing shop or shortening business hours, and left many residents cut off from the expected work they need to sustain their livelihood and households. However, workers who may feel the need to continue working—and employers that allow this—may want to err on the side of caution, and law, and refrain from doing so, as employers who are found in violation can face fines up to $16,000 and debarment from other government benefits, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

When pressed last week to detail the penalties employees and their employers face if caught by authorities working without a renewed permit, Virginia Kice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director and spokesperson of the Western Regional Communications office, referred Saipan Tribune to ICE sanction guidelines that she said contained “considerable information regarding the potential penalties for employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers.”

ICE agents or auditors conduct an inspection of employee forms that employees are required to maintain for federal officials’ review. The Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986 required employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of their employees and created criminal and civil sanctions for employment related violation, using these “ Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 (Form I-9)” as the means of documenting this verification.

Employers maintain for inspections these original forms for all current employees. For past employees, they must retain the forms for a period of at least three years from the date of hire or for one year after the employee is no longer employed, or whichever is longer.

Employers found to have knowingly hired or continue to employ unauthorized workers “will be required to cease the unlawful activity, may be fined, and in certain situations may be criminally prosecuted.”

On top of that, an employer found to have knowingly hired or continued to employ unauthorized workers may be subject to debarment by ICE—the employer will be prevented from participating in future federal contracts and from receiving other government benefits.

If ICE were to discover technical or procedural violations, employers are given 10 business days to make corrections, and an employer may receive a monetary fine for all substantive and uncorrected technical violations.

Monetary penalties for knowingly hiring and continuing to employ violations range from $375 to $16,000 per violation, with repeat offenders receiving penalties at the higher end. Penalties for substantive violations—which includes failing to produce a Form I-9—range from $110 to $1,100 per violation. In determining penalty amounts, ICE considers five factors: the size of the business, good faith effort to comply, seriousness of violation, whether the violation involved unauthorized workers, and history of previous violations.

More information can found at these sites:
https://www.ice.gov/factsheets/i9-inspection
https://www.ice.gov/factsheets/worksite