Calls Increasing for Employer Sanctions for Workplace Immigration Violations

The Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) Division of the Department of Homeland Security has dramatically stepped up worksite enforcement efforts in 2008, part of a high profile effort to demonstrate that they are serious about enforcing immigration laws. Increasingly, critics are pointing out the inequity of arresting and deporting the non-documented workers, while letting the employers escape without penalty.

A recent May 16, 2008 raid at a kosher meat processor, Agriprocessors, in Iowa netted 389 arrests, one-third of the total work force. Currently 297 of those arrested have pled guilty and been sentenced, and will be deported.

Agriprocessors has a long history of irregularities in it's payroll reporting - in the period 2000 - 2005 the Social Security Administration notified Agriprocessors via 5 different 'no-match' letters of 500 instances of Social Security Number - Name mis-matches. Critics argue that the company and its officers were knowingly in violation of immigration law, as demonstrated by an 8 year pattern of hiring and retaining workers who presented false documents. Court documents filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prior to the raid indicate that Quarter 4-2007 payroll records show that 78% of the workforce was working with a false Social Security Number. Why, critics ask, are the employers not prosecuted as aggressively as the workers?

The Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, has developed an electronic I-9 screening system, e-Verify, to assist employers in the verification of legal work status of newly hired employees. HomeWork Solutions is an e-Verify registered agent and can now perform these verifications on behalf of its 'nanny tax' compliance clients.