Yes you can be arrested and fined for immigration I-9 Compliance violations, even if you don’t work there anymore

If you think that quitting or leaving your current position will protect you against I-9 compliance violations, fines or arrest… you may be wrong.

The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently declared that it is "dramatically enhancing its enforcement efforts against employers that knowingly employ illegal aliens." And they meant what they said. In fiscal year 2006, ICE arrested 716 individuals on criminal charges (against both employers and employees) and 3,667 individuals on administrative charges. Combined, these figures are more than seven times greater than the total number of individuals arrested in worksite enforcement cases in 2002, the last full year that the INS was in operation.

It's not just large companies that need to worry about ICE breathing down their neck. Said an ICE official: "No matter how large or how small the company, ICE has no tolerance for individuals who use illegal aliens in their workforce."

ICE is not only going after employers, but the individual executives, managers and former, managers who actually hire illegal workers are being held accountable.

• In April, ICE Agents arrested seven current and former managers of a Nationwide Pallet Company. The charges in the criminal complaints allege harboring aliens for illegal advantage and, in two instances, document fraud

• Last December, two executives of a California fence-building company pleaded guilty to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. The company was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million to the U.S. government. One was ordered to pay a $200,000 fine, the other a $100,000 fine.

Even if you don't knowingly hire illegal aliens, inadvertent I-9 mistakes can still result in penalties, not to mention the sudden loss of workers if ICE audits your records and removes employees who are not eligible to work in the U.S.