This week’s news flash – a quick overview of timely background screening and immigration-related news that is important to your organization.

1. Massachusetts employers and consumer reporting agencies (i.e., background screening companies) be aware of changes to Massachusetts’s CORI regulations in 803 CMR 2.00: Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) and 803 CMR 11.00: Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) as they relate to employment screening. Click here for the revised regulations and click here for redline versions. One change relates to the adverse action process and the requirement for employers to provide specific information about not only adverse CORI information but any criminal history information, including from other sources.
2. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is advising employers that if you downloaded the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification form, from USCIS’s website between November 14 – 17, 2016 that there may be an error in the Social Security Number (SSN) field in Section 1. If November 14th rings a bell it’s because that was when the revised version of the form was published. Therefore, employers should review any such forms to ensure their employees’ SSN’s appear correctly in Section 1. The glitch was that SSN’s were transposed between when they were completed and then printed. Also, employers who downloaded and saved that version of the Form I-9 should download the current version on USCIS’s website. Corrections to Section 1 of the Form I-9 can be made by the employee. Read more by clicking here.
3. The Consumer Data Industry Association announced that Francis Creighton has been named the association’s new President and CEO, beginning next month. Read more by clicking here.
4. Employers take note that for purposes of the Form I-9 and E-Verify you will see a different looking version of both the Permanent Resident Card (aka, “Green Card”) as well as the Employment Authorization Document (aka “Work Permit”) in the future. That’s because USCIS announced a redesign of both cards to include enhanced security features. USCIS will begin issuing the new cards on May 1, 2017. Good news, the Green Card will go back to being green. Read more by clicking here.
5. On April 10, 2017, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) can proceed with its race discrimination lawsuit against Dollar General regarding its employment background check policy, and that Dollar General cannot proceed with certain of its defenses related to the scope of the charges and the pre-suit conciliation process. The lawsuit, filed in 2013, alleges that Dollar General’s discriminated against African Americans through the use of criminal background checks in hiring and firing determinations. The case is Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. DolgenCorp LLC, case number 1:13-cv-04307, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.