Six hundred suspected illegal immigrant workers at Howard Industries in a small Mississippi town were detained on Monday and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has once again set precedence for cracking down on illegal workers in America.
A spokesperson for Howard Industries made a statement to the town’s local newspaper that it “runs every check allowed to ascertain the immigration status of all applicants for its jobs.” Employment eligibility compliance is not as easy as it sounds, as Howard Industries has learned.
Companies that rely on immigrant workers must implement more effective policies that ensure employment eligibility of each and every employee. Employers must go beyond the Form I-9 documentation and check E-verify and Social Security Administration records for accuracy.
If you don’t think your company has the time and resources for lengthy employment eligibility administration, consider the costs this raid has imposed on Howard Industries. This many employees shut down means halting of production and possibly thousands, if not millions, of dollars in losses. Even worse, the supervisory chain could be held responsible if someone wasn’t using the proper compliance procedures.
Many companies are now outsourcing employment eligibility tasks because of the notorious ICE mission to dismantle the illegal immigrant worker faction in the U.S. Outsourcing reduces your liability, ensures procedures and documentation are properly maintained, provides notices when documents expire, and validates employment eligibility of all documents provided by the applicants and employees.
The costs of outsourcing I-9 compliance employment eligibility are minimal compared to the costs of ICE.
For more information on outsourcing I-9 compliance tasks, visit www.i-9compliance.com and download the free white paper 15 Facts Everyone Should Know about I-9 Compliance.
We welcome relevant comments, questions or suggestions from HR professionals, consumers and experts. All comments are reviewed before posting.
*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!
by Admin
8/19/2008 11:37:00 AM
On July 14th, 2008, the Department of Homeland Security began producing and issuing the U.S. Passport Card as an alternative to the traditional passport. The Passport Card was created to expedite document processing at land and sea ports of entry.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced August 8th, 2008, that the card can also be used as a Form I-9 “List A” document to verify employment eligibility. The Passport Card can be used to prove both identity and work authorization.
Employers who are outsourcing Form I-9 processes can also use the Passport Card for work authorization.
For more information on the Passport Card and employment eligibility requirements, visit: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/Update_passportcard_8Aug08.pdf.
To outsource your Form I-9 documentation and employment eligibility processes, visit: www.I-9Compliance.com.
We welcome relevant comments, questions or suggestions from HR professionals, consumers and experts. All comments are reviewed before posting.
*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!
by dbryant
7/21/2008 3:53:00 PM
I-9 compliance and employment eligibility is a paramount issue for employers today and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to discipline violators who knowingly and unknowingly hire illegal workers and violate employment eligibility laws.
News last week that executives of 11 McDonalds franchises in Nevada (see article here) were arrested and fined for hiring illegal workers makes the point that it's not just hourly employees who are targeted in immigration and employment eligibility workplace sweeps. More and more individuals in the supervisory chain are being arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for I-9 employment eligibility violations.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov) there have been 937 criminal arrests in worksite cases of I-9 compliance violations this year, and 99 were in the company’s supervisory chain. Employment eligibility should be every employer's primary concern this year.
"It often takes time to build a criminal case against an employer, but the charges and penalties will likely be more serious as a result,” writes DHS Director Michael Chertoff in the online Leadership Journal.
Executives take note on Form I-9 compliance and employment eligibility:
If your company has a large chain of command from top to bottom and you are unaware of who you are hiring, you must take a new approach to monitoring employment eligibility. Don't leave all the decision making up to your HR personnel and ensure there are administrative procedures in place to verify employment eligibility documentation (Form I-9) collaboratively with the government's E-Verify program. Automating this task will help reduce risk and take the employment eligibility administrative nightmare away from your HR staff.
Visit http://www.i-9compliance.com/ to fill out a request for information and download the free white paper: 15 Facts Everyone Should Know About I-9 Compliance.
We welcome relevant comments, questions or suggestions from HR professionals, consumers and experts. All comments are reviewed before posting.
*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!