One tiny, teensy-weensy, itty-bitty problem. That was the only company in the entire U.S. that was fined for immigration violations in the first five months of the year.

"Employer fines plummet for hiring illegals":

Since 1998, the federal government has fined just four companies in San Diego County and none in Riverside County for hiring illegal immigrants ---- and those statistics seem to paint a very different picture than the one recently described by Undersecretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson.

At an Aug. 13 town-hall meeting on illegal immigration held in Temecula, Hutchinson touted the more than 500 investigations of companies the federal government has recently conducted nationwide. Of those, 179 were in Southern California, he said.

And while a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said last week that the number of investigations has increased since 2001, he acknowledged the number of fines has dropped dramatically in that same period.

Federal records show that in 2001, 141 companies across the country were hit with fines, 15 of them in California. By 2002, those numbers had dropped to 73 and one, respectively. In 2003, 15 companies in the United States were fined ---- none of which were in California. And as of May, just one company ---- in Maryland ---- was fined this year.

In Southern California, the numbers are even smaller. Thirteen companies received fines for violations of immigration laws in 2001 ---- and only two since.

In this region, not a single Riverside County company has been fined in the past decade. ["By 1992, the County was "home" to over 1.3 million residents...more than the entire population of 13 states"] In San Diego County, just four companies have received fines since 1998...