"ICE" Storm To Hit Employers.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is responsible for identifying and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation and infrastructure (ICE) is implementing regulations that will impact employers who conscientiously maintain and reverify I-9 Forms. For a number of years the Social Security Administration (SSA (Serial Storage Architecture) A fault tolerant peripheral interface from IBM that transfers data at 80 and 160 Mbytes/sec. SSA uses SCSI commands, allowing existing software to drive SSA peripherals, which are typically disk drives. ) has sent out "no-match" letters to employers when the W-2 Forms submitted by the employer contains employees' names and Social Security account numbers (SSNs) that do not match SSA records. We have advised employers to alert affected workers to the "no-match" letters so they may correct any discrepancy with SSA. We have relied on the advice of the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices, and historically advised our clients to refrain from viewing "no match" letters as a signal to selectively reverify the I-9 Forms of employees covered by the SSA notifications. This is about to change. The ICE rule creates a "safe harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. " provision with specific procedures to be followed when an employer receives an SSA no-match letter. If the employer does not resolve the "no match" letter within 93 days, by reverifying the employee's identity and work authorization, the employer will be deemed to have "constructive knowledge constructive knowledge, n information and understanding derived from circumstances. " that the employee is not work authorized. In the new "ICE" Age, this will expose employers to criminal and civil penalties. The rule is scheduled to go into effect in 30 days after publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. We will continue to provide updates and guidance. The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. Ms Linda Husar Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol 333 South Hope Street Suite 2900 Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. CA 90071-3048 UNITED STATES Tel: 2126032000 Fax: 2126032001 E-mail: publications@thelenreid.com URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : www.thelen.com Click Here for related articles (c) Mondaq Ltd, 2007 - Tel. +44 (0)20 8544 8300 - http://www.mondaq.com |
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