Immigration Compliance Complexities

The Department of Homeland Security made some moves in July that reflect a continued shift toward investigating employer -- not illegal-immigrant -- violations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced hundreds of planned company audits and continues to make efforts to enhance the E-Verify system.
By Anne Freedman, HR Executive Online

Never an easy problem to begin with, immigration compliance continues to be ever more complex and difficult.

Just this month, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would rescind its No-Match rule, which required the Social Security Administration to notify employers when employee Social Security numbers do not match data in the SSA database.

The rule, which actually never went into effect after the filing of a lawsuit challenging it, required employers to act to correct any discrepancies with the SSA information.

Within days of that decision, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of DHS, also revealed it planned to audit more than 600 employers to ensure compliance with hiring laws.

And, about the same time, DHS announced it would require the use of E-Verify screening for all federal contractors and recipients of bailout funds by Sept. 8. That's another initiative that had been long-delayed by a lawsuit.

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