U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement To Issue 652 Notices of Inspections: What To Do If You Get One
On July 1, 2009, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
announced that in an unprecedented operation, more than 652
businesses nationwide will be issued Notices of Inspection (NOIs),
which is more than the agency issued for the entire previous fiscal
year.
The ICE press release seems to reflect an initiative by
ICE to step up stricter enforcement of employment and immigration
laws to prevent illegal hiring of immigrants and to help protect
jobs for the U.S. work force.
If your business is issued an NOI, the most effective response
is to conduct an internal audit or hire an outside firm to do so as
soon as possible. However, you should immediately contact your
employment or immigration law counsel before taking any further
action. You need not wait until your receive an NOI to conduct an
internal audit, as noted in this advisory.
An internal audit will help uncover and correct omissions or
oversights on I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms and
bring your company in compliance with the Immigration Reform and
Control Act (IRCA). In correcting an I-9 form, all missing
information should be conspicuously inserted, initialed and dated
contemporaneously with its addition.
While mistakes, oversights and omissions discovered on an I-9
form cannot be retroactively corrected, future violations may be
prevented by taking corrective actions now and implementing
enhanced I-9 completion policies internally. Such actions may also
show a good-faith effort to correct oversights and comply with the
law.
Following are a few points to keep in mind and help guide you in
ensuring compliance with IRCA.
Practical tips to avoid I-9 compliance problems
New I-9 form must now be used. The newly
revised I-9 form went into effect on April 3, 2009. The I-9 form
with the revision date of Feb. 2, 2009, (Rev. 02/02/09) printed on
the lower righthand corner of the form must now be used for all
newly hired employees.
I-9 compliance program. Employers should have
a compliance program in place. This means that they must complete
an I-9 form for all employees hired after Nov. 6, 1986. Copies of
the I-9 form and any supporting documentation should be maintained
in a separate file where all I-9s are kept. Employers must ensure
that the forms are properly completed by both the employee and the
employer.
Periodic self-audits. Employers should
consider conducting periodic voluntary audits of their immigration
compliance practices. In light of the complexity and newness of
many immigration regulations, both ICE and the U.S. Department of
Labor (DOL) may exercise leniency toward an employer who has
conducted a voluntary immigration audit. Employers are encouraged
to utilize neutral third parties, preferably with expertise in
immigration law, to carry out internal audits, in order to give
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