Your resource for all things immigration.
Employers should brace themselves as it begins to look like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) will be targeting them more and more in their neverending quest to ferret out undocumented workers. Continue reading “ICE Pledges a 400% Increase in Worksite Enforcement”
Contrary to popular opinion, there are serious immigration consequences for nonimmigrants who are arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) or a related offense. Continue reading “DUI Arrests May Result in the Prudential Revocation of a Validly Issued Nonimmigrant Visa”
Up until 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) focused its enforcement efforts almost exclusively on undocumented workers. For instance, ICE made 6,000 workforce enforcement strategy-related arrests in 2008; only 135 of them involved employers. Continue reading “Immigration Compliance Alert: Increase in Fines for Immigration Related Violations Takes Effect on August 1, 2016”
Since 2009, there has been a dramatic change in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (“ICE”) workforce enforcement strategy. Before 2008, ICE focused its enforcement efforts almost exclusively on illegal workers. In 2009, however, ICE shifted its focus from illegal workers to employers who knowingly hired unauthorized workers. As part of its strategy of targeting employers, ICE began setting up centers around the country that are fully dedicated to worksite inspections. Continue reading “Conducting An Internal I-9 Audit”
The year 2009 marked a dramatic change in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (“ICE”) workforce enforcement strategy. Up until 2008, ICE focused its enforcement efforts almost exclusively on illegal workers. For instance, ICE made 6,000 workforce enforcement strategy-related arrests in 2008; only 135 of them involved employers. Starting in 2009, however, ICE shifted its focus from illegal workers to employers who knowingly hired unauthorized workers. As part of its strategy of targeting employers, ICE began setting up centers around the country that are fully dedicated to I-9 audit work. Continue reading “Five Things Employers Should Consider When Conducting an I-9 Self-Audit”
The following important highlights resulted from the November meeting between the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Verification and Documentation Liaison Committee, USCIS’s Verification Division, and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations: Continue reading “Form I-9 Verification Process Update”
When someone approaches you in a friendly manner, you want to oblige. When someone smiles, your natural inclination is to smile back. So it’s no wonder that an employer may not understand the danger posed when a friendly Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) auditor shows up at the workplace to help the employer understand its recordkeeping obligations and ensure the employer is doing its paperwork properly, even promising to do so in a timely manner so as not to disrupt the employer’s business. Continue reading “How to Respond When ICE Offers to Help”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is not currently accepting applications under President Obama’s Executive Actions. This notwisthanding, if you believe you will be eligible to apply for a benefit, you can begin collecting documentation to show your identity, your relationship to a U.S. Citizen or lawful permanent resident, and continuous residence in the U.S. for the past five years. Continue reading “Executive Actions on Immigration… Now, what?”
It’s been almost four years since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) finalized the regulations for electronically generating and/or storing Form I-9 records. Since that time, more and more employers have migrated to electronic I-9 systems for a variety of reasons—as a way of reducing paperwork violations, managing their I-9 programs, and/or integrating E-verify. Continue reading “The I-9 Squeeze: What Happens When An Employer Migrates to a Completely Electronic System?”
The Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (“OCAHO”) for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR”), in United States v. Clean Sweep Janitor Service, has reduced Clean Sweep’s fines from $12,623 to $6,750. Continue reading “Federal Government Fines Its Own Janitorial Service for I-9 Violations”