On July 1, 2009 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced "a bold, new audit initiative...by issuing Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to 652 businesses nationwide - which is more than ICE issued throughout all of last fiscal year." In August, the Wall Street Journal reported that "John Morton, the new chief of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said that the agency is set to increase the number of companies it will audit and systematically impose fines on violators. Violations could also lead to criminal charges, he said."
On October 1, 2009, SIA reported that the owner and a staff members of Illinois staffing firm, Ideal Staffing Solutions, got jail time, for staffing illegal immigrants at Chicago O'Hare. The ICE press release explains that "the complaint affidavits allege that Ideal Staffing managers told workers they needed to have identification, but that the documents need not be legitimate. At times, Ideal Staffing managers allegedly provided some workers with deactivated airport security badges issued in other names, allowing them to bypass the appropriate security screening."
ICE said the audits were about building criminal cases and a short 3 months later the Ideal Staffing announcement. Clearly, Ideal is an outrageous case.
But there is no doubt that this announcement builds concern across the staffing industry as civil fines are scary enough "Each improperly completed I-9 carries a penalty of up to $1,100, and that's assuming the employee is authorized to work."
Staffing firms tend to collect I-9 forms when candidates are deemed placeable. This means that many, many more I-9s are collected, reviewed, signed and filed than necessary, since only a fraction of interviewed candidates are placed. While procedures are always put in place to find the I-9 in case of an ICE audit, it is extremely difficult to ensure consistency across decentralized recruiters and branches. In addition the the volume of paperwork, the business rules around I-9s are kind of tricky. For example, the document must be retained for 3 years from teh hire date, and we know that tracking the hire data can be hard, especially if you add in breaks in service. When a fool-proof, auditable process is needed, especially in a decentralized environment, automation is required.
The George Association of Personnel Services posted a great article that includes a list of what ICE auditors might ask for:
- Original I-9s. Forms I-9 must be retained for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date of termination, whichever period is longer.
- A spreadsheet alphabetically listing all current and terminated employees with hire and termination dates in electronic form Word or Excel, non-PDF, including the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of each employee.
- Copies of quarterly wage and hour reports and/or payroll data for all employees—current and terminated—covering the period of inspection, as well as quarterly tax statements.
- Business information, including the employer identification number, taxpayer identification number, owner’s Social Security number, owner’s contact information (e.g., address, information, phone numbers and e-mail addresses), articles of incorporation (if applicable) and copies of business licenses.
- Copies of Social Security no-match letters.
- A copy of any I-9 policy.
- The name and responsibility of those who complete I-9 forms.
- The date the business was established, form of the business, where it is incorporated and its revenue.
- The department or job titles of employees.
- Quarterly unemployment insurance reports with the state or quarterly returns for Federal Income Contributions Act taxes.
- ICE may also ask whether the company is a current or previous participant in E-Verify or the Social Security Number Verification Service.
Recent technology announcements:
- TALX Surpasses 200th Client for I-9 Service (9/21/2009) related to TALX I9 eXpress and I9 Management Service
- Biometric Identification May Soon Be Inescapable: Bipartisan Push to Add Biometrics to Employment Verification (SHRM, 8/26/09, login required)
Other providers of electronic I-9s (there are a bazillion of them)
