DHS: ‘We’re going after employers now’
May 8, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Employment law, Hiring, Immigration, In this week's e-newsletter
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning to employers about illegal immigration: There will be a new emphasis on catching and prosecuting employers who don’t follow the rules.
On April 30, DHS announced a major shift in the worksite enforcement program conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): “Effective immediately, ICE will focus its resources in the worksite enforcement program on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.”
Translation: The agency is shifting its approach from catching unauthorized workers to catching the people who hire unauthorized workers.
The cold facts:
- ICE officers will obtain indictments, criminal arrest or search warrants, or a commitment from a U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute the targeted employer before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a worksite.
- ICE will look for evidence of the mistreatment of workers, along with evidence of trafficking, smuggling, harboring, visa fraud, identification document fraud, money laundering, and other such criminal conduct.
Enforcement of immigration law was already a high priority for the federal government in recent years. Last year, 51% of all federal prosecutions were immigration cases. There were 6,000 arrests relating to worksite enforcement, but only 135 were of employers.
All that’s about to change, and ICE has noted that prosecution can extend to owners, managers and supervisors.
What can an honest HR manager and employer do? Just make sure your documentation, such as I-9s, is complete and up to date. And double-check that your hiring practices are in compliance with federal laws.
Tags: dhs, HR, I-9, ice, Immigration
May 12th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Let me get this straight, the Federal Gov. won’t do its job of defending and protecting our borders, so instead they will blaim the problem on those evil employers. It’s all the employers fault! Give me a break. Control our borders like they should be. Round up these little guys (and gals) and send them home.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:00 am
I think Glenn is thinking a bit irrationally, I wonder if he has any idea just how many people our government would have to employ to actually cover our borders, because lets face it, if there is a will there certainly will be a way. And why not go after those who are employing illegal citizens, if they know these people are illegal, they too are doing something illegal and trying to get away with something, paying less in wages or like the article suggests, mistreating of people because they don’t think anyone will say anything, and that is just as wrong.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Maybe the government should think about helping those employers that employ the immigrant populations with education and the verifying process. It not easy to determine if an applicant is legal when they are sitting across the desk from you. If the government provided a better way to verify than they wouldn’t have as many employers in trouble. Those that blatantly hire illegals should be punished, though.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I think that the I-9 should be verified before you hire an employee not after. This way you don’t hire them in the first place if the information does not match.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I agree with Linda.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Linda,
I think the problem with verifying the I-9 prior to employment is that the information provided can be used to discriminate during the hiring process. You have birthdates, nationality, race, etc. Personal information should not be used to determine if a candidate will be hired, but unfortunately it still is, that is why the I-9 is verified after hire.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
This is the same as the police saying, “we will no longer go after the robber, we are going after those that buy the stolen mechandise.” I agree that employers that KNOWINGLY hire illegal workers should be prosecuted and given stiff penilities. However, to ignore the border and only target the employers is stupid.
May 18th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Linda
You can verify an I-9 before you allow a new hire to actually start working. Once you offer someone a job you can verify their documents right then and there. Have them complete the I-9 form and review the documents. If the documents don’t match up or something is wrong you don’t have to let them start working until it gets all straightened out. Nine times out of ten you never see them again and have saved yourself a lot of paperwork and headache. The key is you have to either verbally or in writing offer them the position before asking for documents.
May 18th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Thanks, Linda. Your information is understandable and clear.
If Janet Napolitano keeps up the good work??????together with “never employed anyone in my life” Obama, they will get rid of ALL the “evil” businesses. Then they better hope they can find John Gott to get this nation back on track. And get Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich to Drill Baby Drill to get us out of debt and save the Good Ole USA for our kids and grandkids.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:24 am
I think the key words in the article are “employers who knowingly hire illegal workers”. That is the reason we use the I-9 form, to verify identity and work eligibility.
I enjoy the discussions that follow these articles, but wonder why there is a need to turn these forums into political debates?
May 19th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Make sure that “dicumentation” is in order! What is “dicumentation”?
May 19th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
The easiest way to avoid discrimination complaints and keep out of trouble with the ICE is to verify ALL new hires’ information with the Social Security Administration. Not every person with an assumed identity is an illegal alien; not every illegal is a minority. Keeping that in mind helps you avoid issues of profiling. It’s a simple phone call to SSA to check name and number, or at least it used to be (I retired a couple of years ago). There may even be a website now. Adding a statement to your Employment Application that says something like “We verify every new employee’s identity with the Social Security Administration” will likely send those with phony IDs elsewhere, and prevent you having to waste your time and resources screening and hiring people you can’t keep. And having that verification as part of your written procedures helps immensely if the ICE should ever come knocking.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
We do have a statement on our application that does say “We verify every new employee’s identity with the Social Security Administration” even with this in both English and Spanish on the application it still don’t send those with phony ID’s elsewhere. We also e-verify on line. In my type of buiness when we need to hire we need them right then and there and we mass hire all at once. there still got to be a better way. I know of a business that had all their ducks in a row and it went to court and they lost