Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Leading Facility Services Company

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached an agreement with a leading facility services company resolving allegations that the company violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).  The company, with headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, employs approximately 15,000 employees in the United States. The Justice Department’s investigation was initiated […]

North Carolina Bars Employers from Asking about Expunged Criminal Records

Some states have passed laws restricting how employers may use an applicant’s criminal record in making job decisions. Some states prohibit employers from considering older offenses. Some states prohibit employers from asking about arrest records or records that have been sealed or expunged. Some states require employers to consider whether the offense bears a reasonable […]

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. […]

Changes in Policy for Electronically Storing & Completing I-9

Just last month, the Worksite Investigation Enforcement Unit of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) division of the Department of Homeland Security announced a change in policy regarding the use of electronic software for I-9 completion, storage, and compliance. ICE stated publicly that it will no longer accept I-9 forms that have Section 1 content […]

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 […]

House Proposes Piecemeal Immigration Approach

The U.S. House of Representatives has begun rolling out its immigration-reform legislation one issue at a time as the Senate announced that its comprehensive approach (S. 744) is scheduled to begin committee markup May 9, 2013, the first step toward a vote. Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which handles […]

New Immigration Bill Mandates E-Verify

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, filed April 16, 2013, lays out a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the 11 million people living in the United States illegally, allocates billions of dollars to be spent on border security, creates new legal guest worker programs for low-income jobs and farm […]