Fines Levied Against 2 Detroit Businesses For Immigration Violations
DETROIT (WWJ) Faygo Beverages Inc. and DTE Energy Co. have agreed to pay fines for hiring illegal immigrants.
The fines come more than a year after an audit by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) showed the companies unwittingly had hired illegal aliens.
DTE agreed to pay a $53,000 fine while Faygo was fined $50,000, according to ICE.
The companies cooperated with the investigation and have implemented procedures to prevent future violations of federal immigration laws, ICE said.
"This settlement should serve as a warning to those companies that may not yet take the employment verification process seriously or provide it the attention it warrants," Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations in Detroit, said in a prepared statement.
Employers are required to fill out and keep forms for each employee that documents the worker's employment eligibility. They also are required to determine if the employment-eligibility documents appear genuine.
After implementing a new strategy to crack down on illegal workers in the past year, ICE has brought a record number of civil and criminal penalties against companies.
