[JURIST] The British Home Office [official website] is considering enacting rules that would dismiss company directors and seize assets of firms caught employing illegal immigrants, the Sunday Times has reported. Under the new rules, employers could even be punished if contractors or sub-contractors were employing illegal immigrants. A proposal by Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] is said to include a "two strikes and you're out" policy, which allows for the dismissal of board directors if their company violates the law two or more times. Earlier this month, the UK government rejected a potential amnesty program [JURIST report] for illegal immigrants presently in the country. The current proposal is designed to help limit the number of illegal immigrants in the UK, currently estimated at 570,000. The Scotsman has more.

In the United States, separate immigration reform bills [JURIST news archive] passed by the House and Senate but as yet unreconciled similarly provide for increased fines for hiring illegal immigrants [JURIST report], already nominally sanctioned under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 [text].