Take this warning about I-9 audits from the case against Abercrombie & Fitch. The U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security hit the clothing retailer with a $1-million fine — not for violating rules on hiring noncitizens, but instead for essentially making paperwork mistakes when the company filed I-9s for its workers. (Form I-9 is the basic documentation that verifies status as a legal worker.) The violations were uncovered during an audit in 2008.

Here’s what’s even more remarkable about the fine and its size:

• DHS made no charges that Abercrombie & Fitch employed illegal workers or otherwise violated any immigration law. The $1-million penalty is solely for improper completion of I-9 forms.
• The charges involved only stores in Michigan, not the company’s nationwide operation, indicating there were a limited number of violations that were penalized heavily.
• In announcing the penalty, DHS said the violations were the result of “numerous technology-related deficiencies in Abercrombie & Fitch’s electronic I-9 verification system.” That suggests the company’s problems were rooted in software glitches, especially since DHS underscored the fact that the company cooperated fully in the investigation and apparently wasn’t guilty of any willful violation, either in documenting I-9s or hiring illegal workers.

In a fact sheet released April 30, the new administration’s DHS announced: “Effective immediately, ICE [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] will focus its resources … on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.”

Of the 6,000 arrests made in 2008, 135 were top management officials for employers hiring illegals — a ratio the DHS now feels is much too low.

Does this mean companies need to do anything differently? No — they should just continue rigorously following all hiring laws.

Nothing in the law is changing — just the way the law is enforced. According to the fact sheet, ICE use “all available civil and administrative tools, including fines and debarment, to penalize and deter illegal employment.”