Workplace Compliance - Protect Yourself and Your Business

   
Imagine the surprise when federal agents come into your business and announce they are serving you with legal notices and inspect your personnel records. If you haven’t been following the best practices, you may face significant penalties.
 
Under federal law, employers are required to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all individuals they hire, and to document it by using the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9.
 
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) worksite enforcement strategy continues to focus on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly break the law. They use I-9 audits and civil fines to encourage compliance. Worksite enforcement investigators help combat worker exploitation, illegal wages, child labor, and other crimes collateral to worksite enforcement.
 
Homeland Security Investigation uses a three-prong approach to conduct worksite enforcement:

• Compliance, through I-9 inspections, civil fines and referrals for debarment
• Enforcement, through the arrest of employers knowingly employing undocumented workers, and the arrest of unauthorized workers for violation of laws associated with working without authorization
• Outreach, through the ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers, or IMAGE program, to instill a culture of compliance and accountability

A notice of inspection alerts business owners that the government is going to audit their hiring records. Employers are required to produce their company’s I-9s within three business days, after which ICE will conduct an  inspection for compliance. If employers are not in compliance with the law, an I-9 inspection of their business will likely result in civil fines and could lay the groundwork for criminal prosecution, if they are knowingly violating the law.
 
ICE initiated the IMAGE outreach program in 2006. As part of the program, ICE provides employers with education and training on proper hiring procedures, including the use of employment screening tools such as E-Verify. The IMAGE program complements ICE’s worksite enforcement strategy, which focuses on holding employers accountable for their hiring practices. ICE is creating a culture of compliance by building cooperative relationships with employers that strengthen hiring practices and encourage employer compliance to ensure a lawful workforce. As employers join IMAGE, ICE will more efficiently focus its attention on unscrupulous employers and egregious violators of our nation’s immigration laws. (Read more about the ICE IMAGE program.)