Business Immigration Insights

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has broad authority to investigate and enforce Form I-9 compliance, but employers have rights and responsibilities, too.  Understanding these rights and responsibilities is critical to surviving an ICE worksite enforcement investigation.

Employers cannot hire workers who are unauthorized to work in the United States and must verify the identity and employment eligibility of employees through the Form I-9 verification process.  Forms I-9 must be retained for three years after hiring or one year after the employee’s last day of ...

This week, Tom Homan, acting Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced that he has instructed Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative branch of ICE, to quadruple the number of worksite inspections.  Danielle Bennett, spokeswoman for the agency, confirmed this directive and added “ICE’s worksite enforcement strategy continues to address both employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers and the workers themselves.”

What does this mean for U.S. employers? This means that employers should expect to see increased HSI visits during which HSI will conduct not only I-9 audits to ensure that employers are complying with established employment eligibility verification requirements, but also other investigations related to compliance with immigration and labor regulations.