Companies across various industries in the United States should begin preparing for President-elect Donald Trump's expected crackdown on immigration, and particularly focus on ensuring their employees’ I-9 forms are in order. These forms are crucial for proving each employee’s legal right to work in the U.S. The number of I-9 audits conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surged during former President Trump's first term and is expected to rise further under the new administration.
Though often treated as a mere administrative hassle, companies should be wary of steep penalties for mistakes on I-9 forms, which can include fines as high as several thousand dollars per I-9 paperwork violation, and more than five thousand dollars for knowingly employing an unauthorized worker—increasing with each violation.
Common I-9 violations include failing to complete the form on time, incomplete fields, making errors in fields like citizenship status, accepting unsatisfactory or fraudulent documents, not making copies of documents, not dating and initialing corrections, and employers not listing the date of hire and signing and dating the required sections. Companies should begin conducting internal audits of their I-9 records before the new administration takes office to ensure compliance.
Employers should also prepare for the possibility of ICE conducting widespread workplace raids to detain or deport workers, and new federal policies that revoke the existing status of foreign-born workers legally working in the U.S. Such uncertainty over workforce stability can have significant impacts on companies’ operations, pricing, and decision-making, and should prompt employers to consider strategies to protect their foreign-born employees such as sponsoring H1-B visas. Employers must also be cautious not to discriminate against employees based on immigration status, as this could lead to discrimination claims.
With these concerns in mind, the most crucial action companies can take now to prepare for the new administration is to conduct internal audits of their I-9s. To take it a step further, companies should consider hiring independent auditors, who are more apt to identify errors in I-9 forms and weaknesses in recordkeeping practices.
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