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10-20-2006, 11:26 PM #1
Prepare Now for Stepped-Up Immigration Enforcement
We'll see.
http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIH ... 1335122772
Prepare Now for Stepped-Up Immigration Enforcement
Elise A. Healy
Texas Lawyer
October 23, 2006
For the past 20 years, government investigations of immigration compliance in the nation's workplaces were relatively rare, and fines for noncompliance were low. Say goodbye to all that.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last November announced the Secure Border Initiative, which it vows will include a robust worksite enforcement element. From October 2005 to May 2006, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of DHS, conducted 592 on-site investigations of workplaces and 219 criminal investigations of employers, according to a June 16 ICE fact sheet. As a result, the government has indicted employers on criminal felony charges, including money laundering, fraud and harboring and transporting unauthorized aliens, and also is threatening forfeiture of company assets and fines in the tens of millions on serial offenders that it dubs "egregious employers."
Corporate counsel should plan now for how their organizations will respond to these developments to avoid such negative scrutiny. Three crucial elements of their response should be:
ensuring full compliance with an eventual government-mandated Employment Eligibility Verification Service (EEVS);
taking steps to address Social Security mismatch letters and avoid the egregious-employer stigma; and
considering participation in the new ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers (IMAGE) self-policing program.
A mandatory EEVS program, which would require employers to verify Social Security numbers of new hires, has strong support in Congress and seems almost certain to become law in the near future. The pending House version (H.R. 4437) applies not only to employers but also to for-profit and nonprofit recruiters, temporary agencies, labor contractors, day labor sites, job search Web sites and job placement or referral organizations.
The pending House bill would require organizations to verify Social Security numbers of new hires beginning two years after the bill's enactment. Three years after enactment, verification of all current employees will become mandatory for all federal, state and local government employees, and all workers on military bases, nuclear energy sites, weapons sites, airports and other critical infrastructure. Six years after enactment, EEVS will be mandatory for all employees nationwide.
The voluntary EEVS available today is known as Basic Pilot, and it is an Internet-based system used by about 10,000 employers. DHS hopes to expand this system to accommodate all 7 million U.S. employers. About 80 percent of Basic Pilot inquiries are accurately handled within three minutes, said DHS Verification Division Chief Gerri Ratliff at an August briefing.
But the system is not perfect: In June, the Society for Human Resource Management pegged Basic Pilot's success rate at 85 percent. "False negatives" under Basic Pilot or other verification systems damage productivity and morale as new hires spend weeks untangling errors in government databases.
Mandatory EEVS will clearly affect large employers and those with high turnover the most, as they will need to hire staff to handle verification. Training on the proper use of EEVS to avoid discrimination in hiring will also add significant costs for employers. Imposter fraud will likely increase, although DHS wants to incorporate photos or other biometrics into its databases to combat it.
SAFE HARBOR
The next action item for corporate counsel involves Social Security mismatch letters and the proposed safe harbor rule.
The Social Security Administration sends mismatch letters to employers that report employee name and Social Security number combinations that do not match SSA records. Two developments in this area deserve in-house lawyers' attention.
First, employers must establish and enforce protocols for logging in mismatch letters and responding to them in a timely fashion. Following the April arrest of seven managers and more than 1,100 employees at one manufacturer, a top DHS official announced in June that her agency regards large numbers of Social Security mismatches as a sign of an "egregious violator" -- an employer that violates immigration compliance as a cost of doing business. ICE targets such employers for audits and criminal investigation. Corporate counsel should take steps now to require that managers at all locations take documented steps to respond to SSA mismatch letters.
Second, corporate counsel must be aware that ICE has proposed a safe harbor rule on SSA mismatch letters that reflects the advice DHS has been giving employers for years.
The rule requires employers to check their records for clerical mistakes within 14 days of receiving a mismatch letter to correct the error and verify the resolution with SSA. If the mistake is not in the employer's records, the employee must be told to resolve the discrepancy within 60 days. If the employee does not resolve the matter, the employer has three more days to complete new paperwork using only documents issued with a photo and not containing the questioned Social Security number, or to terminate the employment. Even if the employee turns out to be an unauthorized worker, the government will not deem employers that follow this procedure to have "constructive knowledge" of that fact.
ICE also wants to convince employers to police themselves. In July, ICE announced the "ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers" program, or IMAGE.
Employers that sign up for IMAGE agree to an ICE audit and to implement a series of best practices. These include using Basic Pilot for all hires; establishing training programs and using only trained staff to conduct verifications; engaging an outside auditor to test the integrity of the verifications system semiannually; developing protocols for handling SSA mismatch letters and avoiding discrimination; establishing a tip line for employees to report unauthorized hiring; and self-reporting violations to ICE.
The government's new immigration compliance programs targeting workplaces are not yet finished. Employers with robust audit and training programs may not want to participate in the Basic Pilot program yet; the IMAGE program could also use some polishing. Nonetheless, the government has become increasingly serious about workplace immigration enforcement, and so too should corporate counsel.Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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10-20-2006, 11:42 PM #2The pending House bill would require organizations to verify Social Security numbers of new hires beginning two years after the bill's enactment. Three years after enactment, verification of all current employees will become mandatory for all federal, state and local government employees, and all workers on military bases, nuclear energy sites, weapons sites, airports and other critical infrastructure. Six years after enactment, EEVS will be mandatory for all employees nationwide.
What a joke on U.S..Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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10-21-2006, 12:25 AM #3
Please can the American citizens write these bills already. We know what has to be done!!!
Oh, in a perfect world it would be so easy!!!Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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10-21-2006, 12:57 AM #4
Like they don't know which companes to go after now with the present laws. What about Tyson and Cargill, etc.? These companies employ thousands upon thousands of illegals. If they were to nail these crooked employers now, I bet alot of other big time employers would get the message and stop hiring illegals and start checking their current employees for phony SS#s. Maybe that will stop some of the flow from coming here to steal American's jobs
And if all of this is about reducing illegal immigration, why do they still allow banks to give home loans to illegals? Why do they allow them to accept Matricula cards to open accounts? Why do they not go after Western Union and other money transfer outlets and seize transfers if people can't show they're here legally? If illegals knew their money would be seized if they tried to send it back home, maybe they would stop coming here.[b][i][size=117]"Leave like beaten rats. You old white people. It is your duty to die. Through love of having children, we are going to take over.â€
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10-21-2006, 01:48 AM #5
Well see in 6 years there won't be a US so then no one will have to worry about it ...we'll be NAU with Open Borders throughout the Continent and Hemisphere.
Tricksters.
A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy
Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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10-21-2006, 07:53 AM #6Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen
Laura Loomer - Woke up this morning to a @nytimes article...
03-27-2024, 11:36 PM in General Discussion