ICE has a formula for determining its penalties/fines. The most serious violations are: “knowingly” hiring or employing undocumented workers; harboring or transporting undocumented workers to a jobsite; and knowingly accepting fraudulent documents. An employer can be fined $375 to $16,000 for each unauthorized worker employed (depending on first or subsequent offenses); up to $250,000 and/or up to 10 years imprisonment for harboring and/or transporting undocumented workers; and $250 to $5,000 for each knowingly fraudulent document received (depending on first or subsequent offenses).
ICE has the authority to fine an employer for substantive and/or uncorrected technical errors. ICE has a formula for determining its penalties/fines. The fines/penalties for substantive and/or uncorrected technical errors are $110 to $1,100 per I-9 form. The size of the fine for violations is based upon a sliding scale which starts at $110 for errors on 0 to 9 percent I-9 forms, which the employer should have maintained, and gradually increases to $275, $440, $605, $770 and finally to $935 for 50 percent and more of errors on I-9 forms, which the employer should have maintained.
In addition, there are five aggravating or mitigating factors, each worth a 5 percent increase or decrease from the baseline penalty. They are: size of the business, good faith efforts or lack thereof, seriousness of the violations, whether any employees were unauthorized, and history of previous violations.