U.S. employers of illegals face stiff sanctions

U.S. employers of illegals face stiff sanctions

U.S. employers of illegals face stiff sanctions

By Jerry Seper | Published Today | North America , Business | Rating:

Increased raids on workplaces nationwide expected By Jerry Seper The Washington Times WASHINGTON -- Employers nationwide are being warned that those who fail to fire illegal aliens who use phony documents to get hired face stiff sanctions, including fines of up to $10,000. The Department of Homeland Security initiative was first proposed last year but was delayed pending debate in Congress over a comprehensive immigration reform bill. That effort, endorsed by President Bush, died in the Senate in June. New rules concerning the verification of documents by employers are expected to be formally issued this week and will be reinforced by increased raids on workplaces nationwide, which employ an estimated 6 million illegal workers. "We are tough, and we are going to be even tougher," Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said. "There are not going to be any more excuses for employers, and there will be serious consequences for those that choose to blatantly disregard the law." Rep. Brian P. Bilbray, California Republican and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, has long said that enforcing existing immigration laws was a "necessary first step" in controlling the problem of illegal immigration. Mr. Bilbray's spokesman, Kurt Bardella, described the proposed enforcement effort as "long overdue," but said the federal government "needs to give employers the tools to enforce the law and differentiate who is here illegally and who is not." "That's why we need a tamper-resistant Social Security card so that employers have a tamper-resistant and working employer verification system to use so that they can comply with the law," he said. Employers are required to verify that their workers are in the country legally by collecting their Social Security numbers and immigration documents. Those numbers are checked against U.S. government databases, and employers are notified of those that fail to match.