• Effective July 1, 2026, Indiana’s FAIRNESS Act bars employers from knowingly or intentionally recruiting, hiring, or continuing to employ unauthorized workers.
• The FAIRNESS Act gives Indiana employers a compliance safe harbor when they use reasonable diligence to verify work authorization before recruiting, hiring, or retaining workers, while allowing the attorney general to seek injunctions and license related penalties if violations are not corrected.
• The FAIRNESS Act authorizes the attorney general to enforce the law through notices, investigations, corrective opportunities, and escalating penalties.

Employer Obligations and Safe Harbor

Under the FAIRNESS Act—the acronym stands for “Forging American Independence, Restoring National Exceptionalism Safely and Securely”—it is unlawful for an “employer” (defined as any person, including an agent, that employs employees in Indiana) to knowingly or intentionally recruit, hire, or continue to employ an “unauthorized alien” on or after July 1, 2026. The term “employ” covers engaging an individual’s services or labor for wages or other remuneration, including suffering or permitting someone to work.

Notably, the FAIRNESS Act, codified at Indiana Code 22-5-9, provides a safe harbor. An employer is not in violation if it engaged in “reasonable diligence” before recruiting, hiring, or continuing to employ the individual. Reasonable diligence includes:

• using an electronic verification of work authorization program operated by...

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