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Archive for the ‘Worksite Enforcement’ Category
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Last week, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release stating that it will send another 180 Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to businesses in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. The notices alert the employers that ICE will be coming to their workplace to inspect I-9 records. This marks another round of inspections by ICE, which in 2009 issued 1000 NOIs to employers around the country. Acting special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in New Orleans, Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., stated that “ICE is committed to establishing a meaningful I-9 inspection program to promote compliance with the law. This effort is a first step in ICE’s long-term strategy to address and deter illegal employment.”
Employers around the country should expect ICE to issue more NOIs throughout 2010. As ICE explained, in 2009 it “implemented a new, comprehensive strategy to reduce the demand for illegal employment and protect employment opportunities for the nation’s lawful workforce. Under this strategy, ICE is focusing its resources on the auditing and investigation of employers suspected of cultivating illegal workplaces by knowingly employing illegal workers.”
Klasko reminds employers that it is critical to keep accurate I-9 records. Form I-9 requires employers to determine the employment authorization of hires by reviewing and recording the employee’s identity documents and determining whether the documents reasonably appear to be genuine and related to the individual. Employers are required to maintain an original Form I-9 and supporting documentation for all current employees. Employers also must retain an I-9 file for at least 3 years from the employee’s hire date, or 1 year after the employee’s termination date, whichever is longer.
For more information on worksite enforcement issues, please visit our website at: http://www.worksite-compliance.com.
Tags: I-9 Compliance, Worksite Enforcement
Posted in Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued its “Form I-9 Inspection Overview,” to educate employers on Form I-9 audits, and alert the public of its new penalty schedule. ICE’s Worksite Enforcement Unit released the I-9 Inspection Overview along with its announcement that it will issue a thousand new Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to employers, as Klasko reported on November 20, 2009. Form I-9 is used by employers to verify the work authorization of new employees hired after November 6, 1986.
A complete description of the inspection and fine process, after the jump.
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Tags: I-9, I-9 Compliance, ICE, Worksite Enforcement
Posted in Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Today, President Barack Obama signed into law the 2010 fiscal year Department of Homeland Security Spending Bill. The law extends four immigration related programs including the:
1. The EB-5 Regional Center Program, which allows immigrant investors seeking a greencard to invest $500,000 in a USCIS approved regional center;
2. E-Verify the internet-based Employment Eligibility Verification System run by USCIS that allows employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of certain employees;
3. The Conrad 30 J-1 program which allows state health agencies to annually hire up to 30 foreign physicians to practice in rural and inner-city communities that often have difficulty recruiting physicians. The sponsored physicians are released from their two year home residency requirement if they work for a minimum of three years with the medically underserved population; and
4. The EB-4 Religious Worker Program which provides up to 5,000 permanent immigrants visas for religious workers which include ministers, professionals working in a religious vocation, and other workers in religious vocations.
The law also includes statutory authority for USCIS to complete processing of permanent residence applications for surviving spouses and other relatives of immigration sponsors who die during the adjudication process.
Posted in Agency Updates, EB-5 Investor Visas, Green Cards, Hot Questions, News & Politics, Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
This week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a final rule rescinding the Social Security “No-Match” regulation. The so-called No-Match rule would have charged an employer with having “constructive knowledge” of the unauthorized employment of its employees if the employer failed to take certain steps in response to receiving a No-Match letter from the Social Security Administration, informing it that an employee’s name and Social Security Number provided for a W-2 earnings report did not match SSA’s records.
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Tags: I-9 Compliance, Immigration Compliance, No-Match, No-Match Rule, Worksite Enforcement
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Friday, August 28th, 2009
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced an extension of the validity of Form I-9, and has made a PDF-fillable version available on their web site. The new edition contains no changes from the previous edition and USCIS stated they will continue to accept the February 2, 2009 edition in addition to the current edition, dated August 7, 2009.
Tags: Agency Updates, I-9, I-9 Compliance, Worksite Enforcement
Posted in Agency Updates, Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
We have previously reported on a lawsuit by the US Chambers of Commerce and other groups that was decided today. The lawsuit challenged the amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) that require most companies with federal government contracts to enroll in the E-Verify system. The FAR amendments were originally promulgated in November of 2008, and the Obama Administration has indicated it wants the amendments to take effect September 8, 2009.
The court was asked to rule on both sides’ motions for summary judgment - essentially, requests by both sides to end the lawsuit because the facts and law were clear. The Chambers argued, essentially, that because Congress had made the E-Verify program voluntary, but the new Federal Acquisition Regulations made the program mandatory for federal contractors, the FAR amendments violated Congress’ express directive and were invalid. The government’s argument, in essence, was that the FAR amendments did not make E-Verify mandatory - that a company could always choose not to seek federal contracts, in which case the company would not have to participate in E-Verify.
The court agreed with the government’s position, dismissing the Chambers’ lawsuit and clearing the way for the FAR amendments to go into effect on September 8, unless the Chambers appeal the court’s decision.
Congress may also get in the action, as the E-Verify program is still set to “sunset” as of September 30. A provision extending the program (and providing explicit statutory authority for the FAR provision) was included in the Senate’s bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, but has not yet been enacted.
Tags: E-Verify, Worksite Enforcement
Posted in Hot Questions, Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Monday, June 15th, 2009
On June 10, 2009 the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a request with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for an extension until July 10, 2009 to file a memorandum in support of lifting the injunction against the implementation of the Social Security No-Match regulation. DOJ also requested an extension for filing its response to the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment.
In August 2007, a group of immigrant rights organizations as well as business and employer groups asked the federal court to enjoin the regulation from taking effect. In October of that year, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction. Since that time the case has been in litigation.
Since taking office, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has requested the court to grant several extensions of time so that the government could prepare their pleadings in the case. According to court records, the extensions are aimed at providing Secretary Napolitano with sufficient time to review the regulation in the “context of the Obama Administration’s overall immigration enforcement policies.” Since the Obama Administration took office they have taken a step back from the Bush Administration’s focus on enforcement actions against unauthorized aliens. Rather, they have stated that their top immigration enforcement priorities are towards employers who hire unauthorized workers in violation of federal immigration law.
The Social Security No-Match regulation provides that an employer’s failure to take reasonable steps after receipt of a Social Security No-Match letter can lead to a finding that an employer had “constructive knowledge” of the fact that an employee is an unauthorized alien. Under the Rule, employers would be exposed to increased liability if they fail to take a prescribed course of action termed a “safe harbor” upon receipt of a no-match letter.
The rule, while temporarily prevented from going into effect by a federal court in California, in many ways is only a codification of obligations employers have had since 1986. The Rule requires employers to take certain affirmative steps to resolve questions about an employee’s employment authorization; if the employer fails to take those steps, it can be found to “know” that the employee was not authorized.
For more information on the no-match regulation and how I-9 compliance requirements affect your business please visit our website http://www.worksite-compliance.com.
Tags: I-9 Compliance, No-Match
Posted in Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
One of the most pervasive problems in worksite enforcement is the ready availability of fraudulent documents to those who would work without authorization. Employers need only check that the documents “reasonably appear to be genuine;” the government’s E-Verify program is meant to provide another layer of inquiry through which employers can access government databases to verify that a document presented matches information in the government’s databases - for example, that the social security number on the card is not made-up or matched to a different person’s name.
One of the government’s enforcement strategies has been to charge workers whose fraudulent documents happen to match information from an actual person with “aggravated identity theft,” rather than solely with misuse of documents for an immigration purpose (i.e. completing an I-9). On May 4, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Flores-Figueroa v. United States, overturning the government’s ability to use that particular criminal charge in the I-9 context without proving that the worker knew the identification was not only fraudulent, but also matched the information of a real person.
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Tags: Worksite Enforcement
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Friday, May 1st, 2009
Klasko, Rulon, Stock & Seltzer LLP is pleased to announce the launch of our new micro-site entirely dedicated to providing employers with “need-to-have” resources to stay in compliance with US Immigration laws. The new site provides extensive information to businesses on federal and state worksite compliance laws, I-9 enforcement, E-Verify, Social Security no-match letters and H-1B Labor Condition Application compliance issues.
Special features on the site include:
· An I-9 Desk Reference Handbook (covering Employee Verification, Employer Sanctions and Anti-discrimination laws)
· An E-Verify State-by-State Legislation Survey.
The new site is www.worksite-compliance.com. We hope that you find our new site helpful and informative.
Tags: E-Verify, I-9 Compliance, ICE, Worksite Compliance, Worksite Enforcement
Posted in News & Politics, Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Monday, April 27th, 2009
In early April, Michael Aytes, Acting Deputy Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) testified before the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Homeland Security regarding the status of the E-Verify Program. Aytes provided detail of the program’s performance, improvements the agency has made and will continue to make in the E-Verify system, and future plans to make the I-9 easier to complete and to monitor use of the E-Verify system. A summary of his testimony is after the jump. (more…)
Tags: E-Verify, I-9 Compliance
Posted in Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
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