Can Ice Review Documents Other Than I-9 Pursuant to a Notice of Inspection?

More than than you may expect.

The Trump administration has made a high priority of enforcing clearing law.  As a result, worksite enforcement actions, including I-9 inspections, are increasing.  Then Interim Director of Water ice, Thomas Homan, announced in October of 2017 that his desire was to increase the time spent by ICE on worksite enforcement by 4 to five times previous levels. Homan retired the terminal calendar week of June 2018, but the increase in worksite enforcement volition virtually likely continue to be a priority for this administration.

Employers need to be prepared for an increased chance of existence involved in an I-9 inspection. These inspections may include much more than just I-9 forms. ICE may besides inspect your payroll records, current employee roster, past employee records, taxation statements, earnings statements, Social Security Administration correspondence, business organization licenses, manufactures of incorporation, almanac revenue data, a list of federal contracts and a list of subcontractors or any temporary employment firms used by the company.

To learn more about recent trends in I-9 compliance, heed to this on-demand webcast, What'south new in HR Compliance: I-9 through Unemployment Claims.

The fines for I-9 violations by employers have increased four times since 2016.  As of January 29, 2018, a DOJ penalty for a knowing hire/continuing to employ violation for a first offender has increased to a range of $559 to $4,473 per offense.  For a third offense, the range of fines is now $6,709 to $22,363 per law-breaking.¹

These fines can really add upwards for employers.  For example, an employer with 1000 employees may have an boilerplate iii-twelvemonth memory rate of 3,000 I-9 forms.  If the error rate in their paper I-9 organization is 70%, their potential penalisation at an average fine of $1,230 could total $2,583,000.

Phases in the I-9 Inspection Process

In that location are three phases in the ICE I-9 inspection process:

1. Notification and preparation
2. Forms inspection
3. Contest flow

In Phase one, a Notification of Inspection (NOI) may exist hand delivered or sent by certified US mail.  ICE normally gives companies only iii days to collect and organize the I-9 forms and submit them.  Nevertheless, ICE too has to ability to seize the forms immediately through subpoenas and warrants.

Some states may crave that employers notify employees of the receipt of a NOI from ICE.  Companies need to be enlightened of the laws regarding employee notification in all of the jurisdictions in which they operate, and accept systems in place to rapidly communicate with all affected employees in social club to comply with the applicable laws.

During Stage ii, Ice will inspect I-9 forms and other documents included in the NOI.  Failures to comply will be classified into ii categories; substantive violations that impede the power of the employer to verify, and technical or procedural violations, which may be corrected inside 10 days by the employer to avoid penalties.  Substantive violations may non be corrected.

Inspection results may include:

• Detect of Inspection Results – indicating that the employer meets compliance requirements
• Detect of Suspect Documents – employees with doubtable documents are ineligible to work in the U.South. and should be terminated
• Notice of Discrepancies – indicates Water ice cannot verify an employee'south employment eligibility and gives the employer the option to submit additional documentation
• Notice of Technical of Procedural Failures – details violations and provides 10 days to remedy them
• Warning Notice – notifies the employer that substantial violations exist only that will not be accompanied by a budgetary fine
• Notice of Intent to Fine – identifies violations that require a fiscal penalty

In Phase 3, the Contest Period, employers may choose to negotiate a settlement, or request a hearing within thirty days.  If the employer does not follow i of these two paths, ICE will upshot a Final Club for the company to pay the fines.

Preparing for I-9 Inspections

Due to the increased hazard of being involved in an I-9 inspection, employers would exist well advised to get their houses in order now.  Ice has ruled favorably past reducing or even eliminating fines for employers who accept taken steps to correct their issues earlier beingness inspected.

A good style to ready for an Water ice I-9 inspection is to perform an internal I-9 course audit by gathering all I-9 forms (paper and electronic) within three days.  Missing forms should exist identified and added.  Issues with existing forms should be identified and corrected.

I-9 forms that are no longer required to exist retained should be destroyed or deleted.  During an I-9 inspection, Water ice may issue penalties even for forms that no longer need to be retained, then purging them from your system now reduces your risk.

Systems should be put in place to automate the onboarding process and completion, retentiveness and destruction of I-9 forms.

Standardizing your I-9 completion procedure volition reduce errors.  A Standard Operating Procedure Transmission should exist adult, and recurring preparation should be required for staff members involved in the onboarding process.

For employers with operations in multiple locations, a centralized HR document management arrangement improves compliance.

Automate Your Compliance

Using an automated organization for onboarding and Hour certificate management volition meliorate compliance, reduce risk and increase efficiency.  I-9 course completion can be easily done online in remote locations on many types of devices, even for employees who do not accept their own computers. An estimated sixty% to 80% of newspaper I-9 forms are missing.²

An automatic self-audit and remediation solution makes it easy to review your entire I-nine annal and provides an extensive inspect trail that may reduce whatsoever fines and penalties from ICE. An automated I-9 system enables employers to answer to ICE NOIs within the mandatory 3-solar day time frame, and find forms that may take problems and then corrective actions may be taken earlier ICE inspects them.

CartaHR employee document management software is built for HR.  Integrated with Equifax solutions, CartaHR provides ongoing compliance throughout the employee lifecycle.  For more information, delight visit our website.

¹ "Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustment," 83 Federal Register xix (29 Jan 2018), pp. 3944-3948

² According to an industry chaser at Jackson Lewis P.C.

Andrea Palumbo has over 20 years of experience in the 60 minutes and Payroll manufacture as both an HRIS client and vendor. Her teams are responsible for implementing and maintaining critical HR technology, data and timely processing of payroll for over 1300 employees globally. Andrea's in-depth knowledge of HR Engineering and sensitive employee data allow her to convey the benefits of having a robust HRIS and information direction systems working together next.

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Source: https://www.accesscorp.com/blog/i9-ice-inspection/

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