There has been a dramatic increase in the number of employers being prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants, the BBC has learned.
In the two months since the end of February, when there was a change in the law, 137 businesses were caught employing illegal immigrants.
This is 10 times the number caught in 2007, and more than double the number prosecuted in the previous decade.
Employers face fines of up to £10,000 for each illegal immigrant they employ.
In the last two months fines of about £500,000 have been handed out. Persistent offenders also face a jail sentence.
"There are dodgy employers out there who are trying to undercut their competitors and drive down British wages by employing people illegally, so we've come up with this new way of taking much faster on-the-spot action," Immigration Minister Liam Byrne told the BBC.
It's quite clear that this new regime, which is part of a big shake-up of Britain's border security, is already beginning to work
Liam Byrne
Immigration Minister
"It's quite clear that this new regime, which is part of a big shake-up of Britain's border security, is already beginning to work."
To see the policy in action the BBC was invited out on an enforcement operation with officers from the Borders and Immigration Agency (BIA).
About 60 officers, backed up by the police, walked into a chicken processing factory in Derbyshire. Police intelligence had suggested that illegal immigrants were working there.
In a large processing room 56 workers, all of them from overseas, were preparing chicken pieces for the retail trade.
BIA officers burst into the room, shouting loudly and telling the workers to put their knives down.
The shocked workers were lined up against a wall and told they would be questioned to see if they were in the country legally.
Illegal workers prosecutions rise
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of employers being prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants, the BBC has learned.
In the two months since the end of February, when there was a change in the law, 137 businesses were caught employing illegal immigrants.
This is 10 times the number caught in 2007, and more than double the number prosecuted in the previous decade.
Employers face fines of up to £10,000 for each illegal immigrant they employ.
In the last two months fines of about £500,000 have been handed out. Persistent offenders also face a jail sentence.
"There are dodgy employers out there who are trying to undercut their competitors and drive down British wages by employing people illegally, so we've come up with this new way of taking much faster on-the-spot action," Immigration Minister Liam Byrne told the BBC.
It's quite clear that this new regime, which is part of a big shake-up of Britain's border security, is already beginning to work
Liam Byrne
Immigration Minister
"It's quite clear that this new regime, which is part of a big shake-up of Britain's border security, is already beginning to work."
To see the policy in action the BBC was invited out on an enforcement operation with officers from the Borders and Immigration Agency (BIA).
About 60 officers, backed up by the police, walked into a chicken processing factory in Derbyshire. Police intelligence had suggested that illegal immigrants were working there.
In a large processing room 56 workers, all of them from overseas, were preparing chicken pieces for the retail trade.
BIA officers burst into the room, shouting loudly and telling the workers to put their knives down.
The shocked workers were lined up against a wall and told they would be questioned to see if they were in the country legally.
