Immigration inspectors poring over the hiring paperwork of a California company last summer found that 262 employees - a whopping 93 percent of the total workforce - had "suspect" documents on file.

At an Illinois service company, auditors found dubious documents for nearly 8 in 10 of its 200-plus employees.

Inspectors examining records at a Texas manufacturing firm found suspicious paperwork for more than half of the 107 employees on the payroll.

But the companies didn't pay a penny in fines. None of the employers was led away in handcuffs. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn't even issue them a formal warning, the agency's internal records show.

Instead, they were instructed to purge their payrolls of illegal immigrants. Armed with assurances that the employees with suspect documents were fired - or, in the Texas case, "self-terminated" - the ICE auditors closed the cases.