I-9 Audit gets cooperative company a million dollar fine

Recently a $1,047,110 fine settlement was reached against a large clothing retailer for violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act. In 2009, the U.S. Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement Office of Homeland Security Investigations put together a plan to reduce the demand for illegal employment opportunities. This has created the greatest number of penalties, both civil and criminal, imposed by ICE in the past year.

The case involved how the clothing company verified the employment eligibility of its employees. The retail store in Michigan had been using an electronic system to verify I-9 information. The investigation found many deficiencies, mostly technology-related. The company was cooperative and have since changed their compliance program. Fortunately, no instances of knowingly hiring someone unauthorized were found, however the company still received over a million dollar fine.