Greater scrutiny of employers for immigration enforcement on worksites will come into force in 2018. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director, Thomas Homan, has said that enforcement levels will increase at workplaces by around four or five times the current level.
Immigration experts say that employers need to heed the warning and begin reevaluating their practices and policies to ensure they are compliant with the law, and perhaps even carry out internal audits. Carmelo Grimaldi, a partner at the Mineola-based Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, an employment and labor law practice, says that the statement from ICE represents a serious warning for employers. Grimaldi believes that greater scrutiny of Form I-9 is on the way. This is the federal form that employees and employers must complete to verify the US work eligibility and identity of employees.
Enforcement agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement will want to check that Form I-9 has been completed in full and correctly, and whether an employer has hired, and continues to employ, anyone who lacks the legal authorization to work in the US, Grimaldi claims.
In a statement to Newsday, Danielle Bennett, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says that the agency’s worksite enforcement strategy will continue to address both unauthorized immigrants and the employers that hire them. The former will be subject to arrest and deportation, and the latter will be subject to criminal prosecution.