S.C. Firm Fined $580,000 for Illegal Hiring : Immigration: The levy against Piedmont Quilting is the largest on record under the 1986 employment law.

Federal immigration authorities today levied a record $580,000 fine on a South Carolina textile company accused of hiring scores of illegal aliens, including children as young as 12.

The administrative fine for Piedmont Quilting Corp. of Walhalla, S.C., is the largest under the 1986 law that contains criminal and civil penalties for knowingly employing illegal aliens, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said.

The agency’s announcement came a day after the company and 11 employees and executives were indicted in Greenville, S.C., on federal criminal charges related to the hiring of 117 illegal aliens from Mexico and Peru.

The administrative fine covers the employment of 85 illegal aliens, the INS said. The fine also covers the company’s failure to comply with procedures to verify that more than 400 employees were not illegal aliens, it said.

“This is in defiance of the congressional mandate to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining employment in this country,” INS Commissioner Gene McNary said in a statement.

McNary said the agency’s action “should be a clear sign to those who have any doubts that the Immigration and Naturalization Service is strongly committed to enforcing the employer sanctions” in the 1986 law.

Federal agents raided the company last July in what was called the biggest crackdown on the employment of illegal aliens outside south Florida.

Piedmont Quilting’s attorney said the illegal aliens presented the company with false documentation in order to get hired.