Is everyone in your US office legal to work in the United States? Are you sure? Could you survive an audit of your documentation? This is called an I9 audit. Is it possible that Immigration officials could show up at your door and ask to see your documentation? Yes, and Ashley Kaplan, Senior Employment Law Attorney at ComplyRight, helped me with some tips for making sure you don’t need to be nervous when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) shows up at your door.
Location and industry matters
While any business in any location could technically be subject to a surprise audit, Kaplan says that if you’re in a sanctuary city or work in construction, agriculture, a restaurant, or hospitality, you’re more likely to be audited.While every business needs to be prepared, if you’re in one of these, your chance of a knock at the door is higher.
To keep reading click here: When ICE Comes Knocking at Your Company’s Door
I worked in retail supermarket and saw multiple times what happens when an inspection like this occurs. All those points of verification should be done by the person who documented the hiring paperwork. Being that the company that I worked for had a central office, all the inspection was done there, but each individual store had to re- verify that they were the paperwork properly. What I found strange was that certain individuals would “supposedly ” quit and would return after a certain period of time with a completely different set of “valid” identification. When I would question this, I was told to be quiet about it, because finding employees for position was hard, because of lack of enough applications. Even with unemployment numbers being so high!!! There’s a lot of picky choosey potential employees in market, but certain jobs like retail are considered below their standards.
ICE also has a program called “IMAGE” that is designed to help employers that are working in good faith to do everything they can to stay in compliance wit DHS guidelines.
IMAGE is short for ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers
For more info go to:
https://www.ice.gov/image
or
https://www.ice.gov/video/image-program-overview