From February 2023 to the present, the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) issued four decisions concerning the amount of I-9 penalties.2 In all four cases, the employers underwent Immigration and...more
We rarely see a government body provide guidance to employers in such an extraordinary manner as we saw last month, when an immigration hearing officer sent a loud-and-clear message to employers facing I-9 fines: appeal your...more
Two recent developments involving the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division ("DOJ") highlight potential risks and opportunities for companies facing immigration-related employment matters....more
At a time when inflation is on everyone’s mind, it appears that a federal immigration leader is paying attention and may let inflation play a slightly bigger role in I-9 fine assessments. The Chief Administrative Hearing...more
In the period of 2022 to the present, the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) has issued eight decisions concerning the amount of I-9 penalties. In all cases, the employers underwent Immigration and...more
Climate change may make our summers hotter, but the ICEman still cometh. Since late 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has significantly increased the number of Notices of Inspections issued to employers...more
If you thought it would be safer to require every new hire to be an American citizen—think again. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has a new rule revising its prior regulations on Section 274B of the Immigration and...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) takes the position that employers must physically review original documents in the actual presence of a new hire when completing the attestation in Section 2 of the Form I-9 (the...more
I. USCIS Issues Guidance on When an Amended H-1B Petition Is Required After Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC - On July 21, 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) released a policy memorandum...more
On July 8, 2015, the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer of the U.S. Department of Justice (OCAHO) issued a fine of $605,250 to California-based Hartmann Studios, Inc., an event design and production company...more
On July 8, 2015, the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO), issued a decision finding Hartmann Studios, Inc. “liable for 808 violations of 8 U.S.C. § 1324a(a)(1)(B)”, namely hiring workers in the United...more
The U.S. Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) recently published Gonzalez-Hernandez v. Arizona Family Health Partnership, an interesting decision that illustrates the conflict between state laws and the...more
On July 8, 2015, an administrative law judge (ALJ) ordered Hartmann Studios to pay a fine of over $600,000 for more than 800 I-9 paperwork violations, the largest fine awarded by an ALJ for paperwork violations to date. In...more
During the first quarter of 2015, The Office of Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) issued five decisions involving employer violations related to Form I-9. In its latest decision (United States v. Liberty Packaging,...more
On January 20, 2015, Judge Ellen Thomas, a federal administrative law judge (ALJ) with the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO), a division of the Executive Office of Immigration Review within the U.S....more
In U.S. v. Golf International, an employer contended that E-Verify participation should entitle it to a presumption that it did not violate immigration laws after being issued an initial fine of $136,697 for failing to...more
E-Verify offers a tool to assist employers in verifying employment/immigration status for prospective employees, but it should not be mistaken for protection during an I-9 audit. On March 26, 2014, the Office of the Chief...more
I. USCIS Reaches Fiscal Year 2015 H-1B Cap - As most H-1B employers know, there is an annual quota on the number of new H-1B petitions that can be approved each federal fiscal year. The quota is 65,000 for regular H-1B...more
I. H-1B Nonimmigrant Season Opens on April 1, 2014, for Fiscal Year 2015 - As most H-1B employers know, there is an annual quota on the number of new H-1B petitions that can be approved each federal fiscal year. The...more
As immigration reform measures proceed through Congress, it is critical that employers are prepared for strict worksite enforcement of I-9 requirements to prevent costly auditing and penalties for paperwork violations or the...more
Another recent I-9 case shows how the preference for small employers works in the OCAHO (Office of Chief Administrative Hearing Officer) context*. ...more
Disputes between employers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are heard by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO), which rules on issues arising under the...more
Documents produced by Immigration Customs & Enforcement (ICE) obtained by ACLU of North Carolina prove what has long been claimed: ICE has deportation quotas and, when not meeting them, has been directed to channel all...more