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Update on Status of Changes to Soon-To-Expire Form I-9
The I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification Form, that employers have been using since July 2017 is set to expire on August 31, 2019. Until USCIS makes any additional announcements on I-9 Central, employers should plan to continue to use the current form.
In preparation for the form’s expiration, USCIS initiated a 60-day comment period on its plan to extend the Form I-9 without making any changes in March 2019. Twenty-one comments were received. Since the Form…
The New Normal: Sustained Rise in Worksite Immigration Raids
House Passes Bill to Eliminate Green Card Backlogs, Competing Bill in Senate Introduced
The House of Representatives has taken a step in the direction of eliminating green card backlogs by passing the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 (H.R. 1044) introduced by Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Ken Buck. (R-CO). The support was bi-partisan and passed in a 365 to 65 vote. The bill would:
Increase per country quotas from 7% to 15% in the family-based categories;
Establish a “first-come first-served” employment-based visa system (including EB-5 investor…
Received a No-Match Letter from SSA?
The Social Security Administration (SSA) No-Match letters to employers are notifications from SSA that an individual employee’s W-2 form does not match SSA’s records. The letters also inform employers that corrections are necessary and direct employers to use the SSA’s Business Services Online (BSO) database, which requires registration, to find out exactly which employees came up as “mismatched” and to respond.
What are some of the reasons that there might be a “mismatch”?
An administrative…
U.S. Supreme Court to Decide If Immigration Law Preempts State Law Prosecution
Please see our legal update on the issue of whether the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) preempts states from using information in Form I-9 to prosecute a person under state law.…
Temporary Protected Status Extended to 2020 for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan
TPS employment authorization has been extended automatically until January 2, 2020, for beneficiaries from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan.
In October 2018, a preliminary injunction was issued in Ramos v. Nielsen, preventing implementation of the Administration’s decision to terminate TPS for the four countries. At that time, DHS announced that if the injunction were still pending in March 2019, it would extend all TPS-related documents until January 2020 – and that is exactly what…
Catching Up with E-Verify
Employers will have until February 11, 2019, to create cases in E-Verify for employees hired during (or just prior to) the government shutdown.
Because of the month-long interruption in services, E-Verify anticipates that there will be longer-than-usual processing times and longer-than-usual delays in responses to requests for assistance.
Creating Cases for Employees Hired During (or just before) the Shutdown
During the shutdown, employers were still required to complete Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verifications within three…
DHS Issues New Guidance on Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan
Following Judge Edward Chen’s preliminary injunction blocking the termination of TPS status for beneficiaries from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan, the DHS has issued guidance regarding its compliance with that Order.
TPS status for beneficiaries from the four countries will continue so long as the preliminary injunction remains in effect.
According to DHS, if the injunction remains in force into March 2019, the agency will issue another notice to extend TPS-related documentation (including…
E-Verify Subject to Collective Bargaining
While I-9 compliance is important, companies cannot forget about other labor and employment laws. In May 2018, a meatpacking company in Illinois was caught between ICE and the National Labor Relations Board.
ICE conducted an audit of the company’s I-9s. Upon notice of the audit, the company began implementing E-Verify. An NLRB judge ruled that the company violated the National Labor Relations Act by:
Transferring work to temporary staffing agency workers without first notifying the…