ICE and HSI worksite enforcement activities strike again – this time it’s temp agencies!

In an ICE Press Release today, it was announced that during an ICE and HSI investigation, it was found that a 2-location temp agency was knowingly supplying undocumented unskilled and skilled warehouse and janitorial workers to their clients as a part of their labor pool.

Clinton Roy Perkins, the owner of Can Do It Inc. in Bensenville, IL, was sentenced on February 16th to 18 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for knowingly hiring illegal aliens at the staffing companies. He pleaded guilty in September 2010. On Feb. 25th, U.S. District Judge Joan B. Gottschall also ordered the forfeiture of $465,178 in proceeds obtained as a result of the criminal activity.

Perkins admitted to knowingly hiring more than 10 illegal aliens from Mexico between October 2006 and October 2007.  Perkins did not require the workers to provide documents establishing their immigration status or lawful right to work in the United States.

Perkins and his son-in-law, Chrispher Reindl, paid the illegal workers’ wages in cash; did not deduct payroll taxes or other withholdings. Perkins and Reindl directed low-level supervisory employees to transport illegal workers back and forth between locations near the aliens’ residences in Chicago and work sites in the suburbs. Both also provided bogus six-digit numbers – purporting to be the last six digits of the aliens’ Social Security numbers – to a company, knowing that their workers were in the country illegally and did not possess valid Social Security numbers.

In a quote from special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Chicago:  “We will hold employers accountable for their actions.  Mr. Perkins knowingly hired an illegal workforce and circumvented our nation’s immigration laws for financial gain. The goal of our enforcement efforts is two-fold – reduce the demand for illegal employment and protect job opportunities for the nation’s lawful workforce.”

ICE was assisted in the investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General in Chicago. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher R. McFadden and Daniel May, Northern District of Illinois, prosecuted the case.

One of Mississippi’s most successful and largest private employers pled guilty in federal court last week to knowingly violating federal criminal conspiracy laws in its employment of illegal aliens at the company’s electrical transformer plant in Laurel, MS following an investigation by ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).  The company agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine, which is larger than normal for such a conviction, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.

Immigration agents detained more than 600 illegal immigrants at Howard Industries’ electrical transformer plant during a massive raid on Aug. 25, 2008. Those detained in the raid came from countries including Brazil, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru, and most of them were deported, though a few were convicted on identity theft charges for using fraudulent documents and providing fake papers to other workers.

The company said in a statement that it was pleased to resolve the investigation “based on the actions of its former human resources manager Jose Humberto Gonzalez.”  Gonzalez is the only company executive who has been charged in the case. He pled guilty in December 2009 to conspiracy and admitted that he hired hundreds of people who he knew were in the country illegally.  

The company had repeatedly denied allegations that it had knowingly hired individuals without work authorization, putting all of the blame on its HR manager, Jose Humberto Gonzalez, who was charged in a 25-count indictment with conspiracy and employee verification fraud.   He faces a maximum of 5 years of imprisonment on the conspiracy charge and on each employee verification fraud count. He also faces a minimum of 2 years imprisonment for the aggravated identity theft charge and possible fines up to $250,000.

Howard Industries was charged with knowingly and willfully conspiring to encourage and induce undocumented workers to reside in the US, and knowingly conspiring to conceal, harbor and shield from detection such workers.  As it turned out, Howard Industries waived indictment and agreed to plead guilty to the one-count felony of  conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States which calls for a term of not less than one and not more than 5 years of probation and a fine of up to $500,000. However, this fine was substantially enhanced to $2.5 million due to the nature of the crime (harboring), the number of workers involved (100 or more), and the size of the company.

Apparently Gonzalez would routinely hire unauthorized workers who presented false identity documents, including green-cards and Social Security cards, and then would complete the I-9 with the fake information.  Gonzalez was also accused of submitting SSNs to the Social Security Administration to verify their numbers and then disregarding the results if they came back as invalid.

E-Verify doesn’t protect against identify fraud: Howard Industries was using E-Verify and ran every applicant through the system, but E-Verify doesn’t detect identify fraud and shouldn’t be used as a substitute for I-9 compliance.  The case at hand teaches a lesson about the E-Verify program, in that using E-Verify doesn’t insulate an employer against penalties and doesn’t provide a safe harbor against worksite enforcement.

So what’s an employer to do?

If you are contemplating ‘going electronic’, whether that be an electronic I-9 system or enrolling in the E-Verify program, it is imperative that you find out what condition your I-9’s are in.  This is done by having a qualified immigration attorney that specializes in compliance issues perform either a partial or full audit on your I-9’s so that the reoccurring errors and violations buried in your paperwork can be identified, corrected, and your staff properly trained.  We additionally encourage our clients to work with us in establishing policies and guidelines as to how they want to process and manage the I-9 function at their organization and document this, and make sure that everyone involved with the process is trained and fully understands your internal policies.

We link to the ICE press release

For more information on our employer compliance services and solutions

For those of you who might rather listen to our news than read it, we are releasing a podcast of a previous Blog post on the topic of the I-9 Revised Employer Handbook that was released by USCIS last month that provides additional guidance on many of the most frequently asked questions that we see in our employer compliance practice.  Have a listen and please take our Survey.   For a list of our compliance services and solutions we link here.

Employers can no longer afford to think that because they don’t hire foreign nationals, they don’t have any I-9 issues or need to comply with I-9 immigration regulations. The I-9 form is required documentation for all US citizens and non-citizens …every single employee must fill out an I-9 Form.

In our employer compliance audit practice, we find that every employer has I-9 violations, from minor clerical errors and unintentional mistakes, to document discrimination issues due to lack of training on I-9 regulations and document requirements.

Immigration attorneys, HR professionals, auditing firms and other professionals, if skilled in the practice area of employer compliance audits, could qualify as a viable vendor in handling I-9 audits, training and policy development.

There are a lot of do and don’t lists, blog postings, podcasts, free seminars and more on this topic which is why you should most particularly pay close attention as to whether or not the provider has a broad understanding of employer immigration compliance law and policy.  Discuss with them their previous and current experience, can they answer your questions, what services do they provide, what solutions are they proposing to suit your specific needs, and what type of follow-up consultation do they provide post-I-9 project completion.

Immigration Solutions regularly represents clients from all industries in developing effective I-9 policies and compliance programs. We assist our clients proactively in establishing and maintaining effective corporate policies and procedures, before one of the five government agencies involved with enforcement knocks on your door.

DHS finalized a regulation that provides greater flexibility for employers to electronically sign and store I-9 forms, which are used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to verify employment eligibility-eliminating the need for paper filing and streamlining efforts to ensure a legal workforce nationwide.

Employers—who complete and retain the Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification)—may sign the form electronically and retain the form in an electronic format.

More in the final rule:

1)  DHS will allow competing paper and electronic systems:  This clarifies that an employer moving to an electronic system need not create digital images/data related to historical paper forms. However, from some employer’s perspective monitoring two distinct verification systems for compliance may be too difficult a logistical challenge. These particular employers have elected to go entirely electronic to take advantage of the ability to monitor compliance and provide for electronic reminders. We strongly recommend that employers should continue to approach converting paper I-9s to electronic images very carefully, first discussing the benefits as well as the concerns (in particular audit related and privilege issues) with their immigration attorneys.

2)  The final rule reaffirms that employers will not be required to use a specific technology to complete and store I-9 information, so long as the system they use ensures accessibility and they are able to produce a reasonable facsimile or copy of the I-9.

3)  The final rule will also relax the audit trail requirement from the interim rule so that employers no longer have to keep records of when the information is accessed or viewed. Instead, an audit trail will only need to include information on the the initial completion and any subsequent modification to the I-9.

4)  The final rule will also relax the interim rule’s requirement to provide a transaction record to the employee at the time the electronic I-9 is created. Under the rule to be published tomorrow, the employer may “provide or transmit a confirmation of the transaction only if an employee requests it . . . within a reasonable period of time.” Finally, the final rule will remove the mandate that the electronic storage system be searchable “by any data element,” requiring only an indexing system that “permits the identification and retrieval for viewing or reproducing of relevant documents and records maintained in an electronic storage system.”

5) Indexing does not require all fields:   The final rule identifies that not all of the “data element(s)” must be searchable, but that the system must provide a sense of “searchability” consistent with the amended 8 CFR Sec. 274a.2(e)(6).

More information about I-9 forms and Employment Eligibility Verification is available on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website at www.uscis.gov/I-9.

For further guidance on the electronic signing and storage of the I-9, and the changes to the current regulations to assist businesses in complying with the requirements of the law, please visit www.ice.gov or view the Federal Register at www.gpoaccess.gov.

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What can Immigration Solution do for you?

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.  Because of this, 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 Solutions has created a package of services and solutions to assist you with your compliance procedures that can be tailored to your specific needs and concerns.  Contact our office should you wish to discuss your audit, training and compliance needs.

California-based client receives FAR E-Verify contract language and waits until the 11th hour to get their I-9’s in order:

In order to properly enroll in the DHS FAR E-Verify free Internet-Based program, or a vendor-based Designated Agent program, the contractor must rely upon the accuracy of their I-9’s and the information provided by their employees on the I-9 form.  We recommend a proactive approach to this issue by obtaining a pre-EVerify I-9 audit (can be a random audit or a complete audit depending upon the condition of your I-9s) to pinpoint reoccurring issues and correc them – with accompanying I-9 compliance training and the establishment of policy and procedure around how your company will handle this function – then you’re ready to enroll in E-Verify.

If you have questions or require any of the above services, our distinguished team of attorneys and specialists are available to work with you on your compliance needs.

Leslie Davis, Managing Director
Immigration Solutions

In a Wall Street Journal article from August 18th, the new ICE Chief, John Morton, said that the agency is set to increase the number of companies it will audit and systematically impose fines on violators. Violations could also lead to criminal charges, he said.

On July 1, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced an audit of employers to verify whether their employees were eligible to work.  Mr. Morton said that 654 companies are currently being audited and that many more employers will be notified soon that they also will be under scrutiny by the government.

“You are going to see audits regularly and on a larger scale,” Mr. Morton said during a two-day visit to southern California, his first since being appointed four months ago. “You will see the resuscitation of…civil fines.”

If you have not addressed your I-9 issues, we would strongly urge you to do so.  Our Employer Compliance Unit is up to speed on the law, can develop a compliance program that is tailored to your needs and your industry; we can perform onsite or offsite audits and training and can recommend electronic I-9 compliance and reporting systems with optional E-Verify interface if you’re ready to go paperless.

We link to our solutions and services.

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

…Considering I-9 electronic reporting and tracking?  Then join us on 7/29/09 for a free audio conference with one of the leading I-9 electronic storage providers and Inc.500 winner, along with a member of our Employer Compliance team.

For the Event Announcement:  http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8780911/i-9-Event-Announcement
Tor RSVP:  info@immigrationsolution.net

We look forward to meeting up with you!

Every organization needs to conduct an annual I-9 audit through a qualified USCIS immigration attorney.  Contact Immigration Solutions today for you I-9 needs and do a “pre-audit” audit before ICE knocks on your door.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8232170/Krispy-Kreme-Fined-40K