I-9 Enforcement: Failure to Develop Company Employer Sanctions Law or I-9 Compliance Manual Proves Costly

ICE Announces $450,000 Worksite Enforcement Fine

George's Processing Inc., an Arkansas-based poultry-processing company that employs 4,000 workers at three facilities in Arkansas, Missouri and Virginia, recently paid a $450,000 administrative fine as a result of a 2007 worksite enforcement investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which resulted in the arrest of 136 unauthorized workers at the plant.

It is not clear what the company’s legal expenses were in defending the ICE action, but undoubtedly they were high.

Workers Prosecuted. Twenty-eight of the workers were criminally prosecuted for various immigration violations.

Company Hiring Personnel Convicted.  Two of the company's hiring personnel were convicted of harboring unauthorized workers and inducing them to remain in the United States.

Settlement. The settlement directs the company to train human resources managers and employees on how to avoid hiring unauthorized workers and to develop a compliance program to ensure that hiring procedures comply with U.S. immigration laws.

Enforcement Action Fines Fund Continuing ICE Enforcement. ICE will use the penalty funds to promote law enforcement programs and activities in worksite enforcement.

DHS/ICE enforcement of I-9 and employer sanctions laws now targets employers through on-site investigations and administrative or "desktop" audits. 

Employer failure to verify employment eligibility and properly complete and retain I-9 Forms subjects the company to stiff criminal and civil liabilities, including imprisonment, asset forfeiture, and treble damages in RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) lawsuits by competitors. Executives, officers, managers, supervisors and key employees, as well as accountants are personally liable for civil and criminal penalties for I-9 related errors and unlawful employment eligibility verification (EEV) practices.

I-9 compliance (and E-verify for registered employers) require that employers verify all workers’ employment eligibility, or work authorization. Persons not authorized for employment, whether documented foreign nationals (or "illegal immigrants") generally do not have work authorization. The I-9 laws and the employment eligibility verification process restrict employment of illegal or undocumented immigrants and employment of persons who are not "employment authorized".

Employer liability extends to circumstantial evidence and “constructive knowledge”.
  It is unlawful to knowingly hire or continue to employ unauthorized workers. This I-9 process mandates accurate and timely completion of the Form I-9 by all U.S. employers and their employees.

"Knowingly hire" includes "constructive knowledge". The requisite employer's knowledge may be constructive knowledge when it may be fairly inferred through notice of certain facts which through exercise of reasonable care would lead a person to know about; or the employer deliberately fails to investigate such facts.

Employer constructive knowledge extends to its subcontractors' and independent contractors' I-9 compliance.

Goulder Immigration Law Firm assists employers with Form I-9 consulting, including I-9 and employer sanctions compliance training, developing a company I-9 and employer sanctions compliance manual, and employment eligibility compliance auditing services.  Written I-9 compliance policies and a Form I-9 and employer sanctions law internal audit will help protect employers from government fines and criminal penalties and help ensure that all I-9 Forms comply with I-9 and employer sanctions laws. 

Gerald Goulder is a North Carolina immigration lawyer who practices exclusively immigration law for North Carolina clients and for clients throughout the United States, and the world.  Immigration law is a federal law practice not limited attorneys in a particular state.