New details emerged on the Trump Justice Department’s use of the False Claims Act (FCA) for immigration enforcement against government contractors who utilize illegal aliens for work billed to the federal government. In recent weeks, Bayonne Drydock and Repair Corp. agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle FCA allegations that project subcontractors employed “unauthorized aliens” who worked on ship contracts in violation of the E-Verify provision of federal acquisition regulations. Separately, Bollinger Shipyard also paid more than $1 million to settle claims it had failed to verify the employment eligibility of certain workers on a federal contract. The developments come after acting Trump Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Matthew Galeotti pledged that “priority areas of focus” for the Criminal Division’s Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program would include “violations by corporations of federal immigration law.”
