Thread: ICE signs 37 new partners in the IMAGE program

I just emailed this and another ICE report to all the North Carolina House and Senate folks.

Wonder if they will read it! I truly doubt 1/5 read any thing but their check numbers.

Is it me or is the patch work here on Americans' Security and Hiring criminal, too?

I AM VOTING FOR CHUCK BALDWIN........

Originally Posted by vmonkey56

I just emailed this and another ICE report to all the North Carolina House and Senate folks.

Wonder if they will read it! I truly doubt 1/5 read any thing but their check numbers.

Is it me or is the patch work here on Americans' Security and Hiring criminal, too?

I AM VOTING FOR CHUCK BALDWIN........

Great work vmonkey

Endorsee
New Jersey State League of Municipalities - Trenton, N.J.

NEW JERSEY?!?!??! I don't believe it! They are one of the most illegal alien filled states in the country!!! Plus the traitor Menendez..he must be loving this!

Almost forgot to document this


Got it

Staff Management, Inc. - Chicago


Chicago the sanctuary city??? Wow


I'm going to send all this information to my city and county leaders. Worth a try!

Thanks, vmonkey!! But I am seriously beginning to wonder what sway Bank of America and Wachovia, headquartered in Charlotte are holding with the companies that use their services. After NY, Charlotte is the 2nd largest banking center in the country.

Published on HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com (http://hamptonroads.com)
Smithfield joins program to curb hiring of illegal immigrants

Smithfield Foods Inc., the subject of at least two immigration raids last year in North Carolina, was listed Tuesday among 37 new participants in a federal program to deter the employment of undocumented workers.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office named 26 new members and 11 new associate members to a voluntary program called IMAGE, or the ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers. The federal agency provides education and training to the companies, which in turn agree to deterrents such as establishing a tip line to report the employment of undocumented workers.

Smithfield Foods, based in Smithfield, is an associate member, which means it has not fulfilled all 10 requirements, ICE spokeswoman Pat Reilly said. Reilly and Dick Poulson, an executive vice president of Smithfield, declined to say which requirements the company had yet to satisfy.

Participation in the program, Poulson said, shows "we're being a good corporate citizen and complying with the federal law."

In 2007, immigration officials arrested about 50 workers and former employees at Smithfield's Tar Heel, N.C., plant. Federal agents said that they were in the country illegally and that some had engaged in identity theft.

"When the raids occurred," Poulson said, "we saw the writing on the wall.... We think we've taken steps to protect our employees by hopefully checking credentials and seeing that we're not vulnerable to people stealing identities."

Reilly said Smithfield, with more than 57,000 employees, was among the largest of the new additions to the program.

"We're thrilled that Smithfield wanted to be an IMAGE partner," she said. "It's an important industry. It's one in which we've found a lot of non compliance, not necessarily on the company level but in the hiring area, from the front-line supervisors looking the other way on an illegal work force. We hope that the IMAGE partners will become industry leaders."

The IMAGE program, launched in January 2007, now has 46 full members and associate members, Reilly said.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com


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Source URL (retrieved on 09/09/2008 - 23:27): http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/smithfi ... immigrants

ICE enlists companies to stem illegal hirings
Firms sign on for self-policing; critics wonder if it could be a trap
By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 9, 2008, 10:52PM

CRITERIA TO PARTICIPATE IN PROGRAM

Employers seeking to participate in the federal government's "IMAGE" program must agree to certain conditions, including:
• Establish an internal training program on how properly to check the government's Form I-9 (employee eligibility verification form).

• Enroll in E-Verify ; an employment eligibility verification program, and the Social Security Number Verification Service.

• Arrange for annual I-9 audits by an external auditing firm or a trained employee not otherwise involved in the I-9 and E-Verify process.

• Establish a self-reporting procedure for notifying ICE of any violations or deficiencies.

• Undergo an I-9 audit conducted by ICE.

• Establish a "tip line" by which employees can report activity relating to the employment of illegal workers, and a protocol for responding to employee tips.

• Submit an annual report to ICE to track results of the IMAGE program.

Source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

With high-profile workplace immigration raids making news across the country, many employers might not seem eager to sit face-to-face with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and open up their books for scrutiny.

But Betsy Kippenhan, an executive with a Houston-based staffing firm, seemed downright excited about it, speaking fondly of the "ICE advocate" who will be helping the company, Talent Tree, verify its worker eligibility through an ICE program called "IMAGE."

"We wanted to make sure they were going to look at us and give us the stamp of approval, which is what they've done," said Kippenhan on Tuesday after formally signing up for ICE's self-policing program for employers.

But some immigration attorneys and labor advocates warned that IMAGE could be a legal trap for employers who haven't been vigilant examining workers I-9 forms, which establish eligibility to work in the U.S.

In exchange for free education and training, companies participating in IMAGE (Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers) agree to meet certain requirements, including using the federal government's Internet-based employment verification system and checking workers' Social Security numbers. Employers also must agree to an ICE audit of workers' employment paperwork and promise to self-report any violations of hiring law.


Membership growing
ICE spokeswoman Pat Reilly said the program started small in January 2007 with only nine members.

On Tuesday it added 26 members and 11 associate members, a category created in June to give employers two years to get their paperwork in order before submitting to an ICE audit or producing an annual report. The membership rolls range from small businesses like the Bellaire-based construction company All American Brothers, to big names in government contracting, like General Dynamics. Smithfield Foods Inc., which employs more than 57,000 people worldwide, also is an associate member.

Reilly said some employers expressed an interest in the program after "someone else in their industry was the subject of a worksite enforcement" raid.

ICE has stepped up its worksite enforcement in recent months, reporting 3,900 arrests for immigration violations and more than 1,000 criminal arrests from worksite enforcement investigations in the past 10 months. According to ICE, 116 owners, managers, supervisors or human resources employees, were facing criminal charges in connection with on-the-job raids, including harboring or knowingly hiring undocumented workers.


'A poor image'
For some companies, Reilly said, the program is "brand protection, and an insurance against 'headline risk'. You don't want your brand bandied about as somebody who doesn't comply with the law because then you lose clients' confidence."

Kathleen Walker, an El Paso attorney and executive committee member with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said IMAGE "has a poor image" and has attracted few participants.

"I think it's a mirage," Walker said. "Employers can put themselves into a trap signing up for IMAGE."

Charles Foster, a Houston immigration attorney with Tindall & Foster, urged employers to use caution before signing up for the program, particularly if "their house is not in order."

"On the surface, there is nothing wrong with it," he said. "But there are concerns that employers should be aware of. You're effectively inviting the government to review all of your employment verification forms. That could produce significant civil and criminal liability."


'Not a trap'
Foster and Walker pointed to a raid of the Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in December 2006 in Texas as an example of what can go wrong with private partnerships with ICE. Swift had voluntarily participated in the government's electronic employment verification system for more than a decade before the raids, which resulted in more than 1,200 arrests at six meatpacking plants.

Reilly said E-Verify is a "free, easy-to-use tool," but is not a stand-alone solution to detecting undocumented workers. She said hiring practices at Swift plants showed a pattern of blatant illegal behavior.

Reilly said IMAGE is "not a trap," pledging that ICE will work with businesses that participate in the program.

"When we look at their records ... and patterns that might indicate an illegal workforce, we're not going to say, 'You have to come into compliance by tomorrow.' " Reilly said. "But what we are going to look for is if there is any illegal activity going on in their workplace, we're going to ask them to take care of that first, like stolen identities and flagrant fraudulent documents."

Hector Diaz, the president of All American Brothers Company based in Bellaire, called the program "the wave of the future." He signed up as an associate member on Tuesday, and completed his first day of IMAGE training in Arlington, Va., saying the program has become an necessity for his roughly 20-employee construction company, which works exclusively on government contracts.

"I think it's going to be a requirement for federal contract work," said Diaz, whose recent projects included work at Ellington Field and NASA. "You can't be working on a government contract and have an illegal alien."


Reassuring clients
Ruth McCurdy, vice president for corporate connections for Talent Tree, which employs 35,000 temporary associates and about 250 staff members nationwide, said one of the main goals is to reassure clients that workers placed with their companies by the staffing firm are eligible to work in the U.S.

"There are companies out there that employ illegal aliens and put them in companies, and that puts a lot of people at risk," McCurdy said. "When you are working with a third party for your workforce, you need to know you have a partner that has people who have passed the eligibility requirements."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chr ... 92917.html

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3522--0-0.html

Arizona was the first state to insist on the E-Verify program. The company I work for has just signed up to be in the IMAGE program too, and quite frankly we are very proud to do this as a company. Because the government don't have a handle on the immigration issues most states have implemented their own immigration laws. Arizona and Oklahoma (I think) are the toughest.

I use the E-Verify program for our clients and the only thing it cannot verify is if the card is valid does it actually belong to the person in front of you? The IMAGE program also offers classes to identify fraudulent documents, which most people wouldn't know one if they saw one. Once you have seen one then you can go forward with more confidence at what you should actually be looking at.