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Hiring managers and human resource professionals know the value of degreed skilled worker foreign nationals, especially in the science, technology, engineering and healthcare occupations.  As the workforce becomes more global in scope, employers are increasingly learning that it is essential to understand and effectively adhere to immigration compliance laws and regulations. The trend toward increased scrutiny of immigration employment practices will likely continue in the foreseeable future. With the demise of immigration reform in Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is stepping up enforcement of existing laws prohibiting the employment of illegal workers. These recent developments have made it even more critical that employers maintain a strong immigration compliance profile. Some important developments include:

• Administrative enforcement efforts have both increased and broadened in scope. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has received much higher levels of funding for employment verification enforcement, and it has far more personnel devoted to employer sanctions than in recent years. DHS has also broadened the scope of its enforcement efforts, no longer focusing only on what it calls “critical infrastructure” industries such as airlines and nuclear energy companies. Instead, it has begun to focus on a much wider range of businesses, and recent enforcement activities have targeted retail, construction, landscaping, agriculture, food service, janitorial, hospitality, staffing agencies, healthcare, universities, and many other business sectors.
• Administrative enforcement has increased and will continue to become increasingly more difficult, addressing complex compliance issues such as contractor and vendor relationships, electronic vendor I-9 regulatory compliance, Social Security No-match Letters, and SEC compliance issues for public companies.
• DHS has worked with other law enforcement agencies to pursue criminal sanctions in this area much more aggressively than in the past.
• States and localities continue to enact laws affecting immigration compliance, creating a circumstance where companies operating in multiple states face the possibility of varying compliance risks and obligations.

How Successful has ICE been in its worksite enforcement efforts?

Audit results Since January 2009 in Summary

• 8,079 Audits of Employers Who Knowingly Hired Unauthorized Workers
• Debarred 726 Companies
• More than $87.9 million in financial sanctions

E-Verify Updates Since January 2009 in Summary

• Over 385,000 Companies Enrolled
• More than 1.1 Million Hiring Sites Represented
• FY2011, Over 10 Million Reached in Education Efforts
• FY2011, More than 17 Million E-Verify Queries Processed

What does the Future Hold?

On February 13, 2012 Secretary Janet Napolitano released the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2012-2016. The plan’s third “primary” mission is “Enforcing and Administering Our Immigration Laws.” DHS and ICE have emphasized their commitment to reducing the demand for illegal immigration by eliminating the conditions that encourage unauthorized employment.

In order to meet that objective, DHS predicts that over the course of the next four fiscal years, ICE will initiate nearly double the number of criminal prosecutions of employers for criminally hiring unauthorized employees and anticipates approximately 600 employer prosecutions in 2016. It will do so by increasing the number of administrative I-9 audits, by further perfecting the intelligence sharing capability of its member bureaus, and by continuing to support the roll-out of E-Verify and IMAGE program initiatives that encourage employers to transmit sensitive employee information to government databases.

With the opening in January 2011 of ICE’s new Employment Compliance Inspection Center (ECIC) in Crystal City, VA, ICE has positioned itself according to Director John Morton, to “address a need to conduct audits even of the largest employers with a very large number of employees.” The facility started with a crew of 15 auditors who support ICE’s worksite enforcement strategy by helping agency field offices around the country expedite Form I-9 audits of businesses selected for inspection by ICE. The move steps away from the large-scale, disruptive enforcement raids of employers by immigration agents looking for illegal alien laborers, shifting to a more data-intensive approach that combs company employment records searching for appropriate paperwork.

As an employer, compliance with immigration laws is crucial. We are in a historic moment regarding U.S. Immigration reforms. Major U.S. companies have been slapped with steep fines for non-compliance with immigration laws and contractors have been closed and even jailed for employing illegal immigrants. Now is the time for prudent companies to implement a Corporate Immigration Compliance Program. Our firm's years of experience and knowledge with employer compliance and worksite enforcement issues can assist your business in offsetting the extent of sanctions and other ICE enforcement threats.

Our Worksite Enforcement and Corporate Compliance Team provide practical advice on “best practices” and “safe harbors” to help companies mitigate risk. Our depth of experience enables us to assist clients with all aspects of compliance and investigations from personnel training or developing a corporate immigration compliance program to responding to an ICE audit.

We provide counselling, compliance training and “pre-audit” audit safeguard training in these key areas:

• Employment Verification / I-9 Compliance
• Social Security (SSN) No-Match Letter
• E-Verify (Formerly Basic Pilot)
• H-1B / LCA Compliance
• Mergers & Acquisitions Immigration Due Diligence

Immigration Compliance Group also provides on-site, web-seminar, and tele-seminar training for your business in the following areas:

• Management Group Compliance Information Seminars

Our team provides your management a seminar on immigration compliance and issues that may arise with employees. This comprehensive seminar discusses all issues that may arise in your work place regarding immigration compliance and your immigrant and non-immigrant workers.

• Company Immigration Compliance Evaluations with I-9 Verification

Our team will go in-houseto meet with necessary management and analyze all relevant employee immigration documentation to determine your company's complete immigration compliance position including risks, potential violations and procedural issues. We will provide a detailed written report including suggestions to strengthen your verification process. We can tailor our services to your needs.

• Group Employee Immigration Seminar

We provide in-house seminars for your employees explaining the current immigration law situation and potential ways immigrants can become permanent residents and eventual citizens in the United States. The employees can ask questions and are always invited to follow-up with our office if they believe they qualify for one of the programs we discuss.

This is a list of recent enforcement headlines making the news:

McDonald's Fines $1 Million for Employing Unauthorized Workers

160 Arrested in Immigration Raid at a Houston Plant

Two Supervisors at Raided Meatpacking Plant Arrested

Hayward Pizza Parlor Targeted in Immigration Raid

Authorities Detain 45 in Immigration Raid at Painting Company

Immigration Raids Ohio Restaurants, Arrests 58

Feds Raid Swift Meatpacking Plants at Six Locations Across Country

Immigration Raid Roils Iowa Melting Pot

Hundreds Arrested in Immigration Raids

Hundreds Seized in Immigration Raids - Managers, Employees of Pallet Maker Arrested in Several States

Southfield, Mich., Computer Staffing Firm to Pay $2.65 Million in Back Wages, Penalities for Immigration Law Violations

Immigration Crackdown has Employers Scared

For more information on Employer Compliance: Employment Verification / I-9 Compliance Social Security (SSN) No-Match Letter E-Verify (Formerly Basic Pilow) H-1B - LCA Compliance Mergers & Acquisitions Immigration Due Diligence Employer Compliance Services & Solutions

Immigration Compliance Group works proactively with its clients to provide comprehensive assistance in developing and maintaining best practices necessary to assure compliance with USCIS, ICE, SSA and DOL regulations.

Employer compliance is becoming more complex and enforcement (investigations and audits) is increasing. In order to effectively deal with these issues and avoid the very severe consequences for non-compliance, employers must take the time to develop a strategy and be prepared in advance with an Immigration Compliance Program.

Immigration Compliance Group will customize such a program for you and will provide onsite or telephonic training, consulting, and document auditing in all of the areas mentioned above, as well as provide ongoing compliance updates. For more information on our services, please contact us at info@immigrationcompliancegroup.com