Quickly changing immigration policies have made compliance a moving target for HR, and a new update to one of the most common employer-facing immigration processes is primed to complicate the landscape further.
Last month, Immigrations & Customs Enforcement revised its standard I-9 fact sheet to reflect a new approach to enforcement. In particular, it reclassified a number of violations long considered as minor—from technical errors to more serious violations—eliminating the opportunity for corrections and creating the potential for immediate fines.
“The reclassification of errors raises the stakes of inspections in an already aggressive enforcement environment,” wrote attorneys from employment law firm Littler on the update.
Traditionally, ICE has categorized I-9 errors into one of two buckets: Technical violations have largely been related to minor paperwork issues—a missing date of birth or hire date, for instance. When such errors surface in an inspection, the agency gives an organization 10 business days to correct them. On the other hand, substantive violations, which are immediately fineable, have historically “been reserved for really serious issues that could lead to the hiring of an unauthorized worker, like no signature on a form,” says John Fay, attorney, I-9 expert and director of product strategy at Equifax Workforce Solutions.
In addition to adding seven new violations to the technical category, last month’...
Pakistani actress and model Ayesha Omar has strongly denied a controversial statement falsely attributed to her on social media. In recent days, a statement circulated online claiming that the act...