INDUSTRY NEWS
Inflation Causes Significant Increase in Immigration-Related Fines
By Bruce Buchanan on January 17, 2023
The United States government has increased a variety of immigration-related fines/penalties, effective January 13, 2023. The higher penalties are only for those cases where the penalties are assessed on January 13, 2023 or thereafter.
These increases were pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015. Since that time, penalties have been adjusted yearly based on the rate of inflation. The increases in 2022 and 2023 are the largest in the past seven-plus years due to recent high inflation.
Below are the offenses with the old and new penalties for offenses incurred after November 2, 2015:
|
Type |
Old |
New |
|---|---|---|
| Substantive Form I-9 violations - 1st offense - minimum | $252 | $272 |
| Substantive Form I-9 violations - 1st offense - maximum | $2,507 | $2,701 |
| Knowingly employing undocumented - 1st offense | $627 to $5,016 | $676 to $5,404 |
| Knowingly employing undocumented - 2nd offense | $5,016 to $12,537 | $5,404 to $13,508 |
| Knowingly employing undocumented - 3rd offense | $7,523 to $25,076 | $8,106 to $27,018 |
| Document Fraud (USC 1324c(a)((1)-(4)) | $517 to $10,360 | $557 to $11,162 |
| Document Fraud (USC 1324c(a)((5)-(6)) | $438 to $8,736 | $472 to $9,413 |
| Prohibition of indemnity bonds | $2,507 | $2,701 |
As the penalties continue to rise, it behooves all employers to pay careful attention to their I-9 forms and strongly consider conducting an internal I-9 audit in order to remediate the I-9 errors. If you have any questions, please contact your immigration or employment counsel.
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Posted: January 18, 2023
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