The two illegal-immigrant workers open their wallets and pull out paycheck stubs: $295 (after taxes) for a 40-hour week. That's $9.12 an hour. The checks, both workers say, were payment from Ethan Construction, where, until last month, they both say they worked at the company's old Rainier Brewery building project.

In mid-June, these two workers say they were part of a crew of ten immigrants who quit the Rainier Brewery job after Ethan management asked them to fill out I-9 forms. All employers are legally bound to have employees fill out I-9 worker-eligibility forms that require valid citizenship or immigration papers, so it seems like Ethan Construction was just doing its part to ensure it wasn't employing illegal workers. But that's not what the construction supervisor, Cliff Gomes, believes. Gomes, who quit his job in early July, insists that the I-9s were the centerpiece of a scenario in which Ethan Construction exploited cheap illegal-immigrant labor while trying to protect itself from legal liability.

Ariel Development, a large Seattle-based developer who recently built the Stadium Silver Cloud Hotel, is in the midst of transforming the old Rainier Brewery on Airport Way into a space to be inhabited by "a diverse and sustainable arts community." Ariel contracted the site work to Ethan Construction and Gomes was Ethan Construction's supervisor. In June, Gomes worked under a newly hired project manager named Joseph Jackson.

"He printed off a whole bunch of the forms and told me specifically, 'Have all the Mexican guys sign these,'" says Gomes, referring to Jackson. According to several workers, including three self-identified illegal immigrants interviewed by The Stranger, Ethan employed the illegal immigrants for varying lengths of time; some had worked at the brewery only a few days, others for several months, and one had worked there for over a year. None had filled out I-9s. Gomes alleges Jackson told him to have 'the Mexicans' sign the I-9 forms even if they didn't know what they were, a move he says was intended to keep the cheap labor and still protect the company from liability. Comparing accounts from illegal immigrants and a legal worker named Russell Jennings, it appears the illegals at the site were paid $4–$6 less per hour than the legal workers.

"It was to get these guys to knowingly falsify a document from the Department of Homeland Security," says Gomes. "They want the benefit of cheap labor, but they want to cover their own ass. So if something goes wrong, it's the laborers who are hung out to dry."

Jackson did not respond to two separate requests for an interview. Ethan Construction spokesperson Eitan Alon, however, says the claim that Jackson asked Gomes to force illegal workers to sign I-9s is ridiculous and "not true."

Alon says the company was, in fact, trying to meet all legal standards—not circumvent them. "As a result of the company trying to comply with the requirements, some of our workers decided they didn't want to sign this paper and left," he says. The company also denies "knowingly" using illegal-immigrant labor. "Every person that we hire provides us with a Social Security card and a driver's license and it's all recorded," says Alon. He also says the discrepancies in pay were based on skill and responsibility.

There is a potential loophole that could allow companies to use I-9s to shield themselves from liability for violating employment law. According to former American Immigration Lawyers Association President Daryl Buffenstein, I-9s provide a "safe harbor" for employers as long as they're filled out right at the time of hire and the employer has no "actual or constructive knowledge" of the worker's illegality.

Bo Cooper, the former general counsel for Immigration and Naturalization Services who oversaw its melding into the Department of Homeland Security, agrees that I-9s—which are issued by Homeland Security—protect employers who unwittingly employ illegal workers.

"Actual or constructive knowledge has to be something fairly precise and fairly specific to that person," Cooper explains. A worker telling a boss "I bought this Social Security card for $50," for example, or an employer failing to follow up on a tip from the Social Security Administration that a worker's info is fake.

Without this sort of "constructive knowledge," a company could claim ignorance of its illegal workforce. Though it would face employer's violations for not having workers fill out I-9s immediately, the illegal-immigrant workers themselves could face up to five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, and the risk of deportation for fraudulently filling out the form.

Lorena Gonzalez, a Seattle civil rights lawyer, says that when she worked for CASA Latina—a Seattle nonprofit that assists Latino immigrants—she saw employers take advantage of workers they knew were illegal, asking them to sign I-9 forms using their false documents. "It happens more often than you'd think," she says.

The immigrant workers at Rainier Brewery say they decided to quit instead of signing. Gomes says that when Jackson found out the crew had quit, he was furious. The next work day, according to Gomes, Jackson brought more illegal workers on site and told Gomes to get the I-9s signed, "No conversation this time." Gomes adds: "I wasn't going to ask them to put their freedom at risk in order to protect the company." The second crew quit, too, and Gomes left the job a few weeks later. Again, Ethan's Alon denies there was any coercion. He explains: "Of course Jackson asked them to sign the I-9s. We were trying to follow the law."

Alon explains that Ethan relies on construction contractors and staffing firms to gather crews. "We don't hire people from in front of Home Depot." Alon says that Ethan Construction had a good relationship with Gomes and that he merely left to pursue other prospects.

One prospect Gomes pursued after leaving: filing a complaint with the Department of Labor and Industries—although not about the I-9s. He and several other workers say they were exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos—a claim Ethan Construction sternly denies.

Kevin Shurtluff contributed to this article.