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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Kratovil Introduces The Criminal Penalties For Unauthorized Employment Act Of 2010

Washington, DC – Rep. Frank Kratovil Introduced H.R. 4627, the Criminal Penalties for Unauthorized Employment Act of 2010. The legislation expands the criminal and civil penalties that apply to employers who knowingly hire unauthorized aliens.

“A key to ending illegal immigration is reducing the incentives for individuals to cross the border looking for work,” said Rep. Kratovil. “We need serious enforcement of the rules already on the books, but we also need to let employers know that they too are breaking the law and damaging our economy when they hire undocumented, illegal immigrants.”

The Criminal Penalties for Unauthorized Employment Act of 2010 is designed to replace the current “pattern or practice of violations” determination as a prerequisite to imposition of criminal penalties against employers and instead authorize imprisonment for any individual with direct hiring authority who knowingly hires an unauthorized alien. If passed, the bill will significantly increase the maximum terms of imprisonment, criminal fines, and civil fines that apply for such violations.

Under current federal law, criminal penalties for knowingly hiring an unauthorized alien only apply upon a showing that a person or entity engages in a “pattern or practice of violations.” If a “pattern or practice of violations” can be established the individual is subject to a fine not more than $3,000 for each unauthorized alien and/or imprisoned for a maximum of 6 months for the entire pattern or practice. Under Rep. Kratovil’s legislation any individual with direct hiring authority who knowingly hires an unauthorized alien would be subject to a punishment of $2.5K and/or 1 year in prison per violation, with penalties increasing for repeat violators.

“Employers who hire illegal immigrants are not only breaking the law, but they are also undermining the legal immigration system, creating an unfair advantage over employers who are playing by the rules, and hurting American workers,” said Rep. Kratovil. “We can’t make progress toward reducing illegal immigration until we get serious about cracking down on the bad actors who are creating the incentives. In the coming weeks I will be discussing this bill with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and trying to build momentum in the Congress to get it passed.”

7 comments:

Orsonwells said...

This is rich! If the government is so good at identifying illegal immigrants, why can't they just do their job and deport them? Instead, they would rather make the employer the criminal and use the illegals as bait somehow?

Get a real job, Frank.

Anonymous said...

Big O wont let anyone apply the law to illegals so they'll go after employers. This will just force more illegals to turn to welfare, food stamps, wic, free heating oil/electric bills....just more strain on the middle class. All they really need to do is ENFORCE the laws we already have, thats just to simple for them to understand!

Anonymous said...

This is B.S. Kratovil will get big headlines for intruducint this but it won't ever make it out of commitee

Anonymous said...

Boy, listen to you bunch of enablers.

Sorry, but I want the illegals booted AND the employers who hire them to get theirs.

Like arresting the users while the dealers get a tax break.

Fools!

Anonymous said...

What the hell are both of you guys 8:19,8:36)talking about? If you dry up the labor market for illegals THEY WON'T COME HERE! Obviously chasing after several million illegals doesn't work so why not go directly after those hiring them. According to your logic, maybe we should continue fighting against illegal drugs by locking up the guy on the street corner, not the guy shipping truckloads of it into the community.

Anonymous said...

you two must be apart of that crew that is cheating the system and the American people by hiring illegals

Anonymous said...

12:40 and 12;41 are exactly right. Kratovil is going after the ROOT of the illegal immigrant problem, just like going after the drug DEALERS with stiffer penalties.