[Plutarch]

Under Section 6721 of the Internal Revenue Code, employers can be fined $50

for each invalid Social Security number

Fifty dollars! Wow, that is draconian. Employers must be really shaking in their boots over the prospect of a $50 fine. No wonder the crackdown is so "silent."

[TomGuy]

Under Section 6721 of the Internal Revenue Code, employers can be fined $50

That should be upped to $5,000 per and $25,000 on repeats with no maximum. It would help cure the problem very rapidly.

[Pylot]

As a former employer at a small company (and one that employeed both US Citizens and Legal Immigrant Foreign Nationals) I can assure you that you can get in a heck of a lot more trouble than $50 per day for employing an illegal alien.

You can be closed in a matter of hours if the authorities want to take you to task.

I am wondering what I am seeing here. You know, old Bush speaks one thing verbally (let em in) but officially he is clarifying their status and ultimately running em out of here. I like it!!!

[dano1]

Fifty dollars! Wow, that is draconian. Employers must be really shaking in their boots over the prospect of a $50 fine.

Yes, but remember it's only up to $250,000. So after the first 5,000 employees with fake IDs, there's no penalty at all. What a joke! These numbers should be verified before anyone is hired.

[jdontom]

Fifty dollars! Wow, that is draconian. Employers must be really shaking in their boots over the prospect of a $50 fine. No wonder the crackdown is so "silent."

It's not the IRS that bothers us, it's the Department of Labor, when they catch employers who fail to properly fill out the I-9 form corectly, which verifies your employees status to work in the US, the penelty is several thousand dollars for false information on the form. It's the Employers responcibility to identify and make sure the ID's are correct.

[chatham]

I was in the construction industry and at one time there was an edict from the Govt. that if you hired a non citizen you are subject to a $10,000 fine and they were serious.
What kind of a govt. do we have when Soc.Security. can't share files on illegals with Immigration and nat. service.
I am retired but I would be happy to drive the bus to get these people back to their country and reunite them with their families.
The only reason I can stay retired is because of good wages and great benefits gained by working in this wonderful country. These poor souls will bring down wages and benefits because unscrupulous employers will screw them, knowing their illegal status.
Say what you will about Unions, without them we'd all be underpaid workers forced to work under miserable conditions
for miserable employers.

[tanknetter]

Fifty dollars! Wow, that is draconian. Employers must be really shaking in their boots over the prospect of a $50 fine. No wonder the crackdown is so "silent."

I think that there's another way of looking at it. Chances are that a business that fabricates false SocSec numbers for illegal alien employees is doing other fraudulent cr*p as well.

The IRS is the new version of the Spanish Inquistion -- you don't want them to even notice you, let alone be inclined to pull on the latex gloves for the old financial anal exam.

That $50 may be small, but it does serve as a warning that "SURPRISE!!! You're now on the IRS's radar ... better start practicing grabbing your ankles from a standing position."

At the very least, even if a business ISN'T doing anything illegal, the costs of working through an audit that results in exoneration would push that $50 higher by a magnitude or few.

[RobbyS]

It is enough to get their attention. Suppose you run a lawn service and you have 18 illegals working for you. It serves as a warning that the screws are being tightened.