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When it comes to hiring new employees, every business must be aware of the I-9 form. This form is to ensure that the applicant was born in the U.S. or that he/she has a valid green card. Hiring illegal immigrants is illegal and can result in deportation of the individual, plus heavy fines and sanctions toward the employer. However, the deterrents from hiring illegal workers are sometimes not enough to prevent companies from benefitting from cheap labor.

It is the complete responsibility of the employer to screen all of the applicants, and it is even required for the employer to verify the first portion of the I-9 form. I-9 compliance is vital since all of the responsibility of hiring legal workers falls on the shoulders of the employer he/she also has the right to turn away and individual they see fit. The I-9 form is protected by the Immigration and Nationality Act. This prevents employers from wrongfully turning away applicants based on their nationality. This act also states that the employer cannot ask for any other documentation to be submitted in the I-9 form other than the required documents. If a company is caught with illegal workers, most of the punishment is taken by the employer. Strict fines and other regulations would be enforced upon the company, while the employee could face deportation.

Another penalty that employers could potentially face if found to have employed illegal workers is that they would not be able to have any government related contracts for upwards of 1 year. If the employer is proven to have knowingly accepted falsified documents, not only would they face all the penalties regarding illegal immigration but they would also be subject to criminal charges related with falsifying government documents. I-9 forms must be kept on record up until 3 years after an employee has been terminated. If a company does not keep these on record, or has missing information from the form, even more fines would be enforced. The fines would consist of up to 6 thousand dollars per missing page and up to 3 thousand dollars per missing item on a given form.

There are fines and penalties set up to punish companies in every way that is unlawful. Some companies still choose to ignore this and take the risk of hiding their illegal workers. The entire livelihood of the company and everyone involved with it could easily be destroyed because of penny pinching businesses trying to save a dollar.