Shipley Do-Nut Flour and Supply Company Inc. was sentenced Friday to be under court supervision for a period of three years, pay a criminal fine of $250,000 and forfeit $1.334 million to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for harboring illegal aliens. ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton and U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson made the announcement.

We link to the News Release

We’ve been covering this topic at Immigration Solutions for quite awhile.  Canada has figured out how to implement a much more user friendly immigration system to navigate than the USA.  Have a listen to our audio conference Living and Working in Canada

The Immigration Impact article states:  “If we needed any proof that our dysfunctional immigration system inhibits our economic growth, our neighbors to the north have provided us that proof. Canada is actively exploiting, to their economic benefit, our backlogged and broken immigration system. Canada is recruiting the best and brightest American-trained foreign nationals through a streamlined immigration process. After receiving a U.S. education, these talented foreign nationals are now contributing to Canada’s economic future instead of ours.”

Congress! – it’s time to wake up so that we stop “saying goodbye” to the brightest and best!

Momentum appears to be growing for legislation that would require all employers, not just federal contractors, to use the E-Verify system to confirm that their employees are eligible to work in the United States.

E-Verify is a Web-based system that allows employers to check the Social Security and visa numbers submitted by workers against government databases. More than 137,000 employers now use the system, which approves 97 percent of workers in a few seconds.

Beginning Sept. 8, federal contractors will be required to use E-Verify to confirm that new hires and current employees working on federal contracts are authorized to work in the U.S. The requirement also will apply to most subcontractors.

Many members of Congress want to expand E-Verify to all employers, as a way to end the “jobs magnet” for illegal immigration. This “could open up thousands of American jobs to workers with legal status,” said Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C.

We link to the Business Weekly article.

USCIS has received significant funding for a substantially increased volume of random site visits to employer locations.  Over the coming year, many thousands more employers will have USCIS knocking on their doors.

The FDNS (Fraud Detection and National Security Unit) of USCIS is expanding its manpower and its site visits to employers that hire foreign nationals.  Sometimes the employer is called in advance – and sometimes they are unannounced visits.  Also, many of these site visits can occur after the petition is approved.

FDNS visits are to verify the existence of the employer, discuss the information that the employer has provided to USCIS in their petition(s) and whether the foreign national(s) are working in compliance with the terms of their admission to the USA.  This information can also be used to determine whether or not a petition will be approved.  Typically, the FDNS officer will wish to speak with the HR representative, may want to also speak with the sponsored worker; the officer could have a copy of the petition and will endeavor to verify the information contained in the petition.

What’s the “take away” on this for employers:  It is important that you contact your designated immigration professional should you receive notification of a site visit… AND… make sure that you are working with well-informed immigration counsel that have experience in employer compliance issues.  Immigration Solutions does, and we link to our Employer Compliance page on our website.

We link to one employer’s experience (as posted on AILA Infonet).

Immigration Works USA has released its Talking Points today on the essentials that must be in an immigration reform bill for US employers.

Here’s a list of other talking points as well.

What are your thoughts?

As the House begins its August recess today (the Senate goes home next week), Members of Congress are returning home to kiss babies and meet with constituents on a host of issues. We are betting that some of those visits will be about this country’s broken immigration system.

Nothing moves members of Congress more than face-to-face meetings with constituents letting them know what they care about. So in honor of summer recess, the IPC is reminding you of our top resources that can be used when paying a visit to your local legislator.

We link to Immigration Impact

The self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” has never gotten so much resistance from the federal government.

The Homeland Security Department wants Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., to stop arresting illegal immigrants whose only crime was crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without documents.

The thing is, Arpaio doesn’t much care.

“I’m not going to bend to the federal government, I’m going to do my job,” he said. “I don’t report to the federal government, I report to the people.”

Shifting winds in Washington have led the Homeland Security Department to rework a federal program that has allowed Arpaio’s deputies to make federal immigration arrests since February 2007.

We link to Associated Press Article

SAN DIEGO — President Obama recently reignited the immigration debate when he told reporters that congressional leaders of both parties were ready to “actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now.”

In the months ahead, keep an eye on two things: the calendar and the issue of guest workers.

The calendar: “Right now” might not be soon enough. The conventional wisdom is that the longer Obama waits, the harder it will be to pass any immigration reform legislation. One immigration activist I spoke with even had a deadline in mind: March 2010. Congress has to discuss the bill this fall, he said, and pass it no later than next spring. His thinking — and that of many others — is that the 2010 midterm elections might cut into the Democratic majority in Congress, and then the chance for immigration reform could slip away.

We link to The Washington Post article.

For those of you who did not participate in our July 29th audio conference, we link to an MP3 recording of this very informative event.

Guest Speakers:  Thomas J. Joy, Supervising Attorney, Immigration Solutions Business Unit and Employer Compliance Division

Dan Siciliano, Co-Founder LawLogix, I-9 and E-Verify Electronic Compliance Systems

At a recent conference, Bill Gates shared his ideas about US immigration policy, noting that there should be more “exceptions for smart people.” While not the most eloquently phrased statement, it does pose an interesting question in the immigration reform debate.  Are we turning away skilled workers?  Or are they leaving on their own, thanks to a complicated and unfriendly system of paperwork and jumping through hoops that are never ending?  We link to the article