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!