Overview
With the new administration’s promises of immigration reform have come a notable increase in worksite enforcement investigations against employers suspected of employing undocumented immigrants. Even before taking office, administration officials promised large-scale worksite immigration enforcement. Thus far, the administration’s approach has involved worksite raids and arrests of non-citizen workers at smaller businesses, and large employers have been largely spared from aggressive enforcement actions. In recent weeks, however, the administration has ramped up its enforcement capacity and approach. It has announced its intent to focus some of its efforts on larger employers whom the administration believes harbor or otherwise assist people who are unlawfully present in the US. This alert discusses some of those recent efforts and specific enforcement actions that reflect the administration’s approach toward employers. This alert also identifies steps that employers can take to protect themselves against the impending increase in employer-side immigration enforcement.
Federal Law’s Immigration-Related Limitations on Employers
Federal law has long penalized efforts by any person to use employment or promises of employment to encourage unlawful immigration. For example, federal law prohibits knowingly and intentionally concealing or harboring unlawfully present people in order to protect them from detection by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other federal immigration enforcement authorities. It is also unlawful to encourage or induce non-citizens to come to the US in violation of federal law. These offenses subject violators to stiff penalties, including hefty fines and prison sentences.
Federal law also contains employer-specific prohibitions on hiring or employing non-citizens. For example, federal law prohibits employers from knowingly hiring at least 10 non-citizens during a 12-month period, and imposes enhanced penalties when a “commercial organization or enterprise” is involved in the offense. And it is otherwise unlawful to “hire, or to recruit, or refer for a fee,” any non-citizen “for employment in the US,” or to knowingly continue to employ a non-citizen.
These laws and others serve as the basis for the administration’s aggressive enforcement efforts against employers of all sizes.
The Current Landscape
Not long after taking office, the administration began its immigration push, including against employers. Most of the initial efforts involved worksite raids at smaller businesses. Those efforts resulted in individual arrests and have bypassed enforcement action or penalties against the employers.
However, given recent posturing by the administration, including the president’s executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to significantly increase the number of immigration enforcement officers and agents, including ICE agents, employers can expect larger-scale raids with criminal consequences directed toward employer non-compliance.
Similarly, a recently enacted budget resolution, Public Law No: 119-4, earmarked nearly $10 billion for ICE’s budget. The budget represents nearly across-the-board increases in enforcement and removal operations and homeland security investigations, demonstrating the administration’s commitment to bolstering ICE’s enforcement capacity and using all available means to crack down on unlawful immigration.
The administration’s most recent legislative effort, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, proposes further funding increases to support one million removals annually and hiring 10,000 new ICE personnel. The bill passed the House of Representatives on May 22, 2025, and the Senate is now considering it.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has also prioritized immigration enforcement. A February memo outlining the department’s new general policies on charging, plea negotiations, and sentencing emphasized immigration as a priority for the administration and directed prosecutors to use all available criminal statutes to crack down on immigration. More recently, Matthew R. Galeotti, the Head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, specifically identified corporate violations of federal immigration law as a department priority under the administration. Accordingly, the DOJ has modified the Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program—which creates the potential for those who report corporate misconduct to receive a financial reward—to include employees who report employers’ violations of federal immigration law. The DOJ also emphasized efforts to identify and seize assets involved in, or proceeds from, corporate violations of federal immigration law.
Recent Enforcement Actions
Criminal Enforcement
To date, criminal enforcement has generally focused on non-citizen individuals. But prosecutors are beginning to charge employers with violating criminal immigration prohibitions, like the criminal law that penalizes harboring unauthorized workers. For example, in the Southern District of Texas, two bakery owners were indicted after an investigation revealed that the pair allegedly employed unauthorized workers and housed them in the back room of the bakery. If convicted, both owners could face up to 10 years of imprisonment and fines of up to $250,000.
Civil Forfeiture
The DOJ has recently initiated forfeiture actions against employers for their violations of federal immigration law. A civil forfeiture action in the Southern District of Ohio against a network of businesses used to facilitate the unlawful transport, harbor, and employment of non-citizens at various factories seeks to order the forfeiture of properties at which the aliens were housed and worked, vehicles used to transport the aliens, bank accounts with proceeds of the scheme, and luxury goods purchased with the proceeds.
The DOJ will also aggressively pursue losses in employment insurance premiums and federal employment taxes as part of its strategy to crack down on employer non-compliance with immigration law. For example, the owner of a Florida construction company was ordered to pay $55 million in restitution and to forfeit over $5.5 million in property and cash after an investigation revealed that he falsified employment records and provided jobs to unauthorized workers, resulting in a $22.7 million loss in premiums to insurance companies and a $33.7 million loss in federal employment taxes on the unrecorded wages.
ICE Administrative Fines
While early civil enforcement actions have been generally focused on individuals, a few recent civil enforcement actions against employers demonstrate the sizeable potential penalties that employers could face if they fail to comply with federal immigration mandates. For example, three businesses near Denver were collectively fined over $8 million for, among other things, failing worksite audits and knowingly hiring between 12 and 87 unauthorized workers. The administration has also imposed similarly hefty penalties even without evidence that an employer knowingly hired an unauthorized worker. For example, of the three Denver businesses, a janitorial company, which seems to have unwittingly employed unauthorized workers, was fined $270,195 for similar worksite violations.
Coming Into Compliance
The administration has emphasized its interest in mitigating employer penalties for immigration violations and providing training resources to employers. For example, DHS has launched the HSI Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) Program, through which employers give ICE access to their I-9 records, and ICE waives or significantly reduces potential fines for non-criminal violations. The program emphasizes self-policing and rewards participation by forgoing subsequent I-9 inspections for four years. Similarly, the DOJ has increased incentives for companies to self-report criminal violations—including, in some cases, allowing companies who self-report to avoid criminal prosecution.
In light of the administration’s continued focus on immigration-related offenses, immigration compliance is more important than ever. Businesses should continue to maintain and bolster their compliance practices related to immigration requirements, including conducting internal I-9 audits, ensuring proper I-9 training, and updating internal I-9 policies.
