Immigration Crackdown: New England firms face steep fines for hiring illegal workers

While this aritcle focuses on New England, it provides a good analysis of the nation-wide problems of businesses with the present federal attempts to eliminate the employment of undocumented migrants and what legislative reforms are needed to address these problems.

New England firms face steep fines for hiring illegal workers - The Boston Globe: "Those penalties (fines) are the result of a major shift last year in the Obama administration’s immigration strategy. Instead of the dramatic, large-scale raids that snagged hundreds of illegal immigrants, including at a New Bedford factory three years ago, federal officials say they are focusing more on the businesses that hire them. The aim is to eliminate the job opportunities that attract illegal workers. ...

Federal immigration officials audited more than 2,000 companies nationwide last fiscal year, examining the federal I-9 forms that companies must maintain for employees certifying that they are all eligible to legally work in the United States. Nationwide, federal officials fined noncompliant companies $6.95 million last fiscal year, 10 times the amount two years before. ...

The fines frustrated businesses that said they wished Congress and the president would find a solution to illegal immigration so that they could avoid fines and other trouble. ...

Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, said three pieces must be in place to solve the problem: Illegal workers should be (able to come) here legally to reduce their incentive to get false documents, the government should carry out effective enforcement, and businesses should have access to the workers they need, more in expansive times, and fewer during a recession.

Otherwise, he said, the fake document industry will continue to thrive and sabotage the system. “That’s the real challenge here,’’ said Chishti, who runs the institute’s office at the New York University School of Law. “Unless you get all these three things working together, we won’t have anywhere close to a good, functioning system.’’"