Sunday, Apr. 17, 2011

Officials audit Tri-City eatery to catch illegal immigrants

By Kristi Pihl, Herald staff writer

One Tri-City business has learned the hard way about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s switch from random workplace raids to audits of businesses’ paperwork.

Pasco immigration attorney Tom Roach said that the restaurant was among 1,000 businesses nationwide that had their I-9 forms audited by ICE since February.

The one-page I-9 form, which is required to establish employees’ eligibility to work in the U.S., can be tricky, Roach said. In fact, the employer instruction booklet for the form is 65 pages long.

Roach said the Tri-City restaurant’s I-9 forms all had technical errors. And so did five companies that recently hired him to review their I-9 forms.

Employers can be fined from $110 to $1,100 per form for technical mistakes even if their workers are legal.

The audits are a result of a change in tactics by ICE, which in 2009 began focusing on I-9 inspections and civil fines rather than random raids looking for illegal immigrants.

Virginia Kice, ICE’s Western regional communications director, said, “Inspections (of the I-9 forms) are one of the most powerful tools the federal government has to ensure that businesses are complying with U.S. employment laws.â€