Civil RICO Claims And Immigration Law Violations

Mohawk is one of several recent cases in which private parties have sought to hold employers liable for RICO violations where the employers allegedly, in conjunction with recruiters and staffing agencies, knowingly hired undocumented foreign workers. How did RICO, enacted in 1970 and designed to provide the government with a tool to eliminate the negative impact of organized crime on the nation's economy, come to be used as a civil tool for private parties seeking to enforce U.S. immigration laws? The answer lies in a little-noticed 1996 amendment to the RICO Act which opened the civil-action door for parties concerned about the growing dependence of certain sectors of the U.S. economy on low-skilled foreign labor and frustrated by the U.S. government's inefficient enforcement of its immigration laws. The expansion of civil RICO actions to include violations of immigration law has significant implications for all corporations and businesses, and not just those that must rely on a low-skilled and low-paid workforce. Employers who do not have, and follow, a comprehensive company immigration plan to ensure that their policies, contract terms, and communications with their employees and agents comply with current immigration and employment laws can find themselves at significantly greater risk not only of government sanctions, but also of the harsh financial penalties resulting from civil RICO liability.