DHS Announces Re-designation and 18-Month Extension of Temporary Protected Status for Syria

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has re-designated Syria for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and extended the existing TPS designation for the country from Oct. 1, 2013, through March 31, 2015. This allows eligible nationals of Syria to register or re-register for TPS in accordance with a notice published today in the Federal Register. U.S. […]

ICE Goes After Three Restaurants with Little Success at OCAHO

The Office of Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO), which issued three decisions involving restaurants in March 2013 severely reduced ICE’s proposed penalties that is of interest for our clients in the Retail and NRA verticals. A summary of the cases are provided below and is courtesy of ILW  and is  authored by Bruce E. Buchanan, an […]

Montana Passes E-Verify Mandate for All Employers

The Montana Senate passed with amendments House Bill 297, “An Act Making Employment of Unauthorized Aliens Unlawful under State Law”, which will require all employers to verify the work eligibility of new hires through the federal E-Verify system beginning October 1, 2013. Employers would not be required to verify the work eligibility of independent contractors. While […]

USCIS will no longer accept previous versions of Form I-9, Employers must use new I-9

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reminds employers that beginning today 05/07.2013 they must use the revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (Revision 03/08/13)N for all new hires and re-verifications. All employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each employee hired to work in the United States. The revision date of […]

Colorado Becomes Ninth State to Prohibits Use of Consumer Credit Information in Employment

Colorado recently became the ninth state to prohibit employers from using credit information for employment purposes. In the last few years, eight other states have also passed laws which, subject to few exceptions, regulate ban employers’ ability to use credit information in making employment decisions. The nationwide trend towards banning employers’ use of credit history […]

I-9 Audits on the Rise

I-9 audits have seen a rapid increase in number along the years with audits scaling from next to none in 2004 to over 3000 in 2012.Employers should pay attention accordingly, as the fines for substantive and procedural violations of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) can add up quickly, Daniel Brown, an attorney with […]

Justice Department Settles Immigration-Related Discrimination Claim Against Property Management Company

The Justice Department today reached an agreement with a nationwide residential property management firm headquartered in Dallas, resolving claims that the staffing company violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). In a charge filed with the department, a lawful permanent resident alleged that after working for Milestone for three years, the […]

Kansas City construction company owners indicted for money laundering, harboring illegal aliens

The owners and managers of a construction framing company in Spring Hill, Kan., were indicted in federal court Monday and charged with a wide variety of criminal violations related to hiring and harboring illegal aliens for the company. These indictments resulted from an investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations […]