Articles Discussing Employment Eligibility For Non-Citizens.

The current Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification is set to expire on March 31, 2016. On the eve of the form’s expiration, USCIS has announced that employers must continue to use the current version until the proposed I-9 is in effect.

The Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA) requires all employers to complete a Form I-9 for all employees hired after November 6, 1986. The law prohibits an employer from knowingly hiring or continuing to employ an unauthorized alien. The severity of the consequences awaiting employers who violate this law was evident recently in two cases in Nebraska federal court. U.S. v. Younes and U.S. v. Kearney Hospitality Inc.

In 2010, Abundant Life Evangelical Community filed a PERM labor certification application with the US Department of Labor on behalf of an individual to work as an administrative assistant. PERM is the process most employers use to seek permanent residency or a green card for an employee. PERM involves testing the labor market or seeking qualified US citizen or other employment authorized workers. If no qualified workers are found, the employer files the PERM application with the DOL requesting certification.

Periodic internal I-9 audits are considered an employer “best practice” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Before conducting an internal I-9 audit, however, employers need to understand how to address a range of issues likely to be identified.

For its proposed 13th iteration, the I-9 form is getting “smart” new features.

Employers using E-Verify may mistakenly believe that once a record is created, it will be stored forever in the E-Verify system. Effective January 1, 2016, E-Verify transaction records more than 10 years old will automatically be deleted from the E-Verify system. That means that employers will no longer have access in E-Verify to cases created prior to December 31, 2005. This action is being taken to comply with the National Archives and Records Administration’s retention and disposal schedule.

President Barack Obama’s executive order expanding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) eligibility and work authorization met a another roadblock when a federal District Court threatened to sanction the Secretary of Homeland Security and senior DHS officials for issuing three-year Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). The court previously enjoined implementation of expanded DACA, including issuance of EAD’s valid for three instead of for two.

Executive Summary: On July 8, 2015, an administrative law judge (ALJ) ordered Hartmann Studios to pay a fine of over $600,000 for more than 800 I-9 paperwork violations, the largest fine awarded by an ALJ for paperwork violations to date. In United States v. Hartmann Studios, Inc. (OCAHO Case No. 14A00008), the ALJ found the employer liable for 808 of the 818 Form I-9 paperwork violations alleged by the government. Although the judge refused to entertain Hartmann’s financial hardship defense due to its failure to provide audited financial statements or otherwise respond to the government’s discovery on its ability to pay the government’s proposed civil money penalty ($812,665.25), she made modest downward adjustments in the proposed base penalties, but increased the aggravation penalties for violations associated with unauthorized workers, resetting the fine amount at $605,250.

An Administrative Law Judge with the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) recently entered an order against a Minnesota-based professional employer organization (PEO) for failing to comply with the Form I-9 attestation requirement. The order assessed nearly $230,000 in civil penalties against the PEO.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the expansion of “myE-Verify” to 16 states: California, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

On January 1, 2015, E-Verify will delete all transactions more than 10 years old from their system.Accordingly, as of January 1, 2015, E-Verify users will no longer have access to E-Verify cases created prior to December 31, 2004.Employers that would like to retain a record of cases more than 10 years old should download the new Historic Records Report, which will include all transactions for cases over 10 years old created prior to December 31, 2004.

On October 6, 2014, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the launch of its “myE-Verify” website. According to USCIS, myE-Verify is “a one-stop shop for employees to create and maintain secure personal accounts and access new features for identity protection” and “signifies a significant step forward for added transparency, features, and identity protection” related to E-Verify.

Executive Summary: The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Discrimination (OSC) within the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has made it a priority to pursue employers who allegedly misuse or abuse access to the E-Verify program and unlawfully discriminate against applicants and employees in hiring and termination on the basis of citizenship status discrimination and document abuse. Employers suspected of engaging in a pattern or practice of discriminatory employment verification procedures could face months of costly investigation and be forced to pay civil money penalties, back wages and punitive damages. What’s more, they could be ejected from participating in the E-Verify program, lose the right to do business in states that mandate private employer participation, and face debarment from federal contracting rights.

Employers work hard to make sure they comply with federal immigration law, but they must remember not to take their efforts too far. Last week, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) reminded employers everywhere of their obligations to treat both citizen and non-citizen employees alike when it comes to verifying the employment eligibility of individuals, to the tune of $155,500 in civil penalties.

United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) has launched a new customer service enhancement to E-Verify, the Internet-based employment eligibility verification program that compares information on an employee’s Form I-9 with data in Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records. With this enhancement, the E-Verify system will continue to issue a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) if there is a record mismatch that needs to be resolved before the employee can be confirmed as work authorized, but will now also notify the employee electronically.