Question of the Week
Is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raiding employers and even arresting executives and managers for immigration violations? What are the "best practices" in employee eligibility verification to protect a business?
Employers should not be lulled into a false sense of security that they can ignore legal requirements to verify the employment eligibility of their employees because comprehensive immigration reform appears to be stalled. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), within the Department of Homeland Security, is executing a significantly enhanced worksite enforcement program.
ICE may inspect an employer's records for good faith compliance with the immigration employment eligibility verification requirements, more commonly known as the "I-9 requirements," so named after the government verification form that employers must complete on all employees. ICE is targeting businesses that are involved in areas of national security and critical infrastructure as well as industries where they believe there are a high percentage of undocumented workers, such as agriculture, food service, cleaning companies, hotels, restaurants, landscaping and construction.ICE utilizes many other tactics to identify employers who are knowingly employing or continuing to employ unauthorized workers and is exploring ways to better share information between federal agencies such as the Social Security Administration and the IRS. In addition, employers who "turn a blind eye" to the practices of third party contractors on their premises that are found to be employing illegal aliens may also find themselves subject to investigation and sanction. Investigations are increasingly resulting in criminal prosecution against the more egregious violators, including managers and executives, for harboring, smuggling, document fraud, money laundering or worker exploitation.
In this climate, it is essential that employers recognize the shift in the government enforcement focus, and implement proactive compliance programs.
The Worksite Enforcement and I-9 Compliance Team at Gunster Yoakley works with our client companies on a comprehensive approach to all of the various facets of employment eligibility verification compliance.
For more information please contact Sarah Lea Tobocman.
