Two companies that admitted to hiring illegal workers have each agreed to pay $2 million in fines to the Department of Homeland Security and adhere to revised immigration compliance programs, including agreeing to hire a chief compliance officer.

DHS struck the non-prosecution agreement on Jan. 24 with Atrium Cos., a manufacturer of residential windows and doors, and Advanced Containment Systems (ACSI), which makes emergency response vehicles and trailers. The NPA means that neither company will face criminal prosecution.

“These non-prosecution agreements require each company to continue their substantial remedial measures to address past immigration violations, the payment of a significant penalty and the company's continued cooperation in an ongoing criminal investigation, while also taking into consideration the collateral consequences that a criminal prosecution would have on the company's ongoing business concerns,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson in a prepared statement.

According to the complaint, both companies received multiple notices from the Social Security Administration, indicating discrepancies between the SSA's information and the information provided by ACSI and Atrium Cos. Both companies additionally failed to take corrective measures, resulting in the continued employment of the illegal workers.

In ACSI's case, a Form I-9 audit conducted in February 2011 by DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit revealed that from 2005 to 2009, 44 percent of the workforce at the ACSI facility was undocumented, many employed with numerous “egregiously suspect” identification documents, including misspellings of agency names and/or containing the words “novelty item.”

In November 2009, ACSI ran all of their employees' names through E-Verify to determine their employment eligibility, and terminated those unauthorized to work in the U.S.

Champion Window similarly engaged in a pattern and practice of hiring undocumented workers for years prior to its acquisition by Atrium Cos. in June 2006. Champion managers ignored the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act by falsely attesting on I-9 forms that work authorization documents presented by new hires appeared genuine.

An audit conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations in early 2011 revealed that about 269 of Champion's 451-person workforce consisted of undocumented workers. At the request of the government, all undocumented workers were terminated from Champion by the end of April 2011.

As a result of the compliance failures, ACSI paid $2 million in wages to illegal workers between 2005 and 2009. Champion received at least $2 million in revenue from the sales of its products manufactured and services provided with the use of its predominantly illegal workforce from 2006 through 2010.

The investigation also revealed that, since acquiring Champion, management at Atrium had become aware of the possibility of large numbers of illegal workers being employed at Champion's Houston, Texas factory. A follow-up audit Atrium Companies' remaining 12 subsidiaries in May 2011 revealed that about 8.3 percent of the parent company's 3,382 employees (excluding Champion employees) were undocumented aliens. All of these workers were terminated within a matter of weeks.

Since December 2010, Atrium Companies has taken substantial remedial measures to ensure compliance with immigration law in its hiring process, including revising its immigration compliance procedures to include new policies concerning the proper completion, retention and auditing of I-9 forms and for responding to SSA no match letters. Under the terms of the NPA, Atrium Companies must also hire a full-time chief compliance officer and continue to consult with immigration counsel in order to ensure the legality of its workforce.

The cases against ACSI and Champion were handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kebharu Smith and David Searle, Southern District of Texas.