Exclusive — Sen. Rick Scott Introduces Bill to Double Civil Penalties on Illegal Aliens, Employers Who Hire Them

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced legislation Thursday that would raise civil fines on illegal aliens who enter or attempt to enter the United States unlawfully or fail to leave after being ordered removed, while also increasing penalties for employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers.

Scott’s bill, titled the “Illegal Immigration Cost Recovery Act,” is being cosponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT).

The legislation would amend federal immigration law to increase civil financial penalties for three categories covered in the bill text: 1) aliens who “enter or attempt to enter the United States without authorization”; 2) aliens “subject to a final order of removal who fail or refuse to depart from the United States”; and 3) employers that “knowingly hire aliens who are not authorized to work in the United States.”

The bill says that civil penalties for improper entry would rise from the current range of $50 to $250 to a new range of $200 to $1,000. The bill would also raise the civil penalty for failure to depart from $500 to $1,996.

The measure would also increase employer penalties for knowingly hiring unauthorized aliens. For a first offense, the bill would raise the penalty range from $250 to $2,000 to a new range of $1,432 to $11,448. For a second offense, the penalty range would rise from $2,000 to $5,000 to $11,448 to $28,616. For subsequent offenses, the penalty range would increase from $3,000 to $10,000 to $17,172 to $57,238.

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