The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 first created the provisions requiring all American Employers to verify and document that all of their employees have the legal right to work in the United States. In passing the so-called "Employer sanctions" provisions into law, Congress reasoned that this system will encourage legal immigration to the U.S. by helping to eliminate the magnet attracting illegal immigrants to enter the country in search of employment to which they are not entitled. With the enactment of IMMACT90, monetary civil penalties can be assessed by USCIS against an Employer for failure to comply with these provisions, whether such failure is willful or negligent (except for certain specific instances, as will be explained later). In other words, ignorance of the law is no defense.

Congress through enactment of certain provisions of IIRAIRA in September 1996, has imposed additional civil and criminal penalties for failure to comply with employment verification requirements and for fraudulent acts related to employment authorization documentation. Congress has authorized the hiring of 300 additional investigators for I-9 compliance. IIRAIRA also imposes additional civil penalties for preparing, filing or assisting another in the preparation of any application (i.e., Form I-9 among other USCIS forms) "with knowledge or in reckless disregard of the fact that such application or document was falsely made in whole, or in part, does not relate to the person on whose behalf it was or is being submitted." The fine for violation of this new provision is up to a maximum of $2,000 for each document and up to $5,000 for each document, if the individual was previously subject to a fine for a previous violation.

Congress, however, has also provided Employers an opportunity to correct "technical or procedural" I-9 violations, on the condition that the deficiencies resulted from a "good faith" effort to comply with employment verification requirements. Commonly referred to as the Sonny Bono amendment, this provision provides that certain omissions or failures to adhere strictly to I-9 regulations by an Employer will not result in an immediate fine, but rather the Employer will be given notice of the "technical" violations and 10 days to cure the deficiencies.

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