Immigration enforcement has become the number one priority of immigration agencies. The most recent example of the government’s focus on enforcement involves the restaurant industry. Last week, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (”ICE”) announced that it arrested 63 undocumented workers at 11 El Balazo restaurants around the Bay Area in California.
The El Balazo arrests are not unusual. ICE arrested more than 4,900 immigration violators in 2007, a 45-fold increase compared to arrests in 2001.
The increase in enforcement actions means employers need to pay particular attention to I-9 compliance, which deals with the employer’s obligations when hiring workers. For a discussion on I-9 compliance, see I-9 Employment Verification Rules.
If you or your employees are involved in an enforcement action, you should know that often there are defenses that an experienced immigration lawyer can assert. An attorney may also be able to help an incarcerated employee get out of immigration detention. For information about detention, please see Gaining Freedom from an Immigration Detention.
I hope you are never involved in an enforcement action, but if you are, Smith & Garg attorneys would be glad to assist you.
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1 Is Your Company In Compliance With Immigration Hiring and Compliance Rules? // Jul 17, 2008 at 2:29 pm
[…] Now is definitely the right time for businesses to review their employment practices for compliance with immigration rules. The Bush administration is bent on putting the immigration problem on the backs of employers through fines and prosecutions; hence, employers should take precautionary steps to make sure they do not become a target or victim of the stepped up enforcement efforts of the Federal government. […]
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