Immigration agency targets N.J. businesses

[chanel]

Immigration officials in the past 10 months have warned 25 businesses in New Jersey that they may face fines if they failed to ensure that their employees are eligible to work in the U.S., said Harold Ort, the spokesman for the Newark office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Violations of employment record keeping, Ort said, include failure to properly prepare what is known as Form I-9, which requires employers to verify a prospective employee's eligibility.

The companies face fines totaling roughly $1.25 million, he said, again declining to identify them.

"Fine amounts may vary — $110 to $1,100 per violation — depending on mitigating and aggravating factors in a particular case," Ort said.

Last year, ICE's top officials in Washington, D.C., said the audits signaled a shift in the agency's crackdown on illegal immigration. That shift pivots on a more aggressive effort to identify and penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants, immigration officials say. Under George W. Bush's administration, immigration worksite enforcement often involved raids in which illegal workers were arrested and deported.

Immigration officials say tips from other government agencies and from the public are among the ways they target employers for audits.

I have no problem with ICE going after businesses who KNOWINGLY hire illegals.

What I do have a problem with is this: When they are fired, what happens then? Public assistance? Deportation?

When a business or layperson aids illegals, they are committing a crime. When the government does it, it's called what?