Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that the agency is serving more than 500 additional Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to companies throughout the U.S. According to ICE, the audits are, in large part, a result of leads about employers who allegedly are engaging in hiring unauthorized workers and paying employees unfair wages or otherwise exploiting workers. The NOIs alert business owners that ICE will audit their hiring records to determine compliance with the employment eligibility verification laws. Specifically, the audits involve a comprehensive review of Form I-9s (Employment Eligibility Verification Form). All employers are required by law to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each employee. The purpose of Form I-9 is to document that each employee is authorized to work in the U.S. based on a verification that the person’s identity and employment authorization documentation reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the employee.
This recent information reflects ICE’s controlled enforcement emphasis on this area. As previously mentioned in Gunster’s Immigration Bulletin from last December titled, “ICE Announces 1,000 New Workplace Audits”, ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton has stated that “[w]e are increasing criminal and civil enforcement of immigration-related employment laws and imposing smart, tough employer sanctions to even the playing field for employers who play by the rules.” ICE has identified Form I-9 audits as the most important administrative tool in building criminal cases and bringing employers into compliance with the law.
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