Justice Dept. Increases Penalties for Document Fraud and Employer Sanctions

IMMIGRANTS & EMPLOYMENT

INS Workplace Enforcement

JUSTICE DEPT. INCREASES PENALTIES FOR DOCUMENT FRAUD AND EMPLOYER SANCTIONS
Immigrants’ Rights Update, Vol. 13, No. 7, November 17, 1999

The U.S. Dept. of Justice has published a final rule in the Federal Register increasing civil monetary penalties for violations of laws that the agency is charged with enforcing, including the fines that can be assessed for document fraud under section 274C of the Immigration and Nationality Act and as employer sanctions under section 274A. The notice states that under the Federal Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, civil monetary penalties must be evaluated and adjusted for inflation every four years. The statute specifies that the first such adjustment for a particular fine can raise the fine by no more than ten percent, and, accordingly, the DOJ is raising each of these fines by that amount. The increases apply only to violations of the law that occur on or after the rule’s effective date of Sept. 29, 1999.

Thus, the penalty for a first offense under the civil document fraud statute is a fine of not less than $250 and not more than $2,000 for each fraudulent document used prior to Sept. 29, 1999, and a fine of not less than $275 and not more than $2,200 for each fraudulent document used on or after Sept. 29, 1999. The new fine schedules are set forth at 8 C.F.R. section 270.3(b)(1)(ii) for civil document fraud fines, and at 8 C.F.R. section 274a.10(b)(1)(ii) for employer sanctions.

The rule notes that in January 1999 the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) issued Rules of Practice for the Office of Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO), which is the subdivision of the EOIR that conducts hearings concerning charges of civil document fraud under INA section 274C, discrimination under INA section 274B, and employer sanctions under INA section 274A. The OCAHO Rules of Practice also raised the fines for violations of sections 274A, B and C by ten percent. 28 C.F.R. Part 68. Thus, the final rule’s increases in the amount of fines that the INS can charge in civil document fraud and employer sanctions cases parallel those the OCAHO can assess in adjudicating these cases.

64 Fed. Reg. 47,099–104 (Aug. 30, 1999).