Immigration Reform Is On The Way

A little over a year ago, on May 25th 2006, the United States Senate passed the most significant immigration reform law in the last twenty years. This new and more comprehensive immigration reform bill addresses three main problems: the first one is securing the United States border, the second one is creating a temporary guest worker program that will address labor shortages and the third is what to do with the estimated twelve million undocumented immigrants in the country. The immigration reform bill now goes to the House/Senate conference committee where it must be reconciled with the House bill. The House bill only deals with the first issue: "securing our borders" and it is "enforcement only". The rationale behind it is that first there is the need to reassert control over the US borders. It proposes to build a 700 mile fence along the border with Mexico as well as adding 6,000 new border patrol agents, and making "unlawful presence in the US" into a felony. It also raises the maximum fine for knowingly employing an undocumented worker from $10,000 to $40,000 and it includes criminal sanctions for repeat violators. The Bush Administration has proposed two new immigration reform laws that would insure that employers are employing workers who are authorized to work in the US. The first immigration reform idea they had was that employers should be allowed to keep I-9 employment authorization forms electronically in digitized form. Second, they have proposed new procedures for employers setting forth their duties and responsibilities when they receive "Social Security mismatch" letters, indicating that their employees' social security numbers and names do not match with their account. Hopefully, the immigration reform will be approved soon and they will be able to legalize those workers whose documents are not appropriate. However, if a new law creating a temporary worker is not approved, employers must prepare themselves to deal with the increased workplace enforcement which is expected.

Regardless of what the final immigration reform bill will look like or even if no bill passes at all, one thing is certain and that is that there will be increased enforcement of employer sanctions. Just as the IRS made all employers into deputy tax collectors, Immigration is making employers deputy immigration inspectors, by requiring them to complete form I-9 for all employees and also by now requiring them to verify the accuracy of their employees' social security numbers when they receive "mismatch letters" from the social security administration. The immigration reform bill has also proposed the creation of an electronic data base for employers to verify their employee's social security numbers. It is a fact that enforcement of employer sanctions has already increased and will increase substantially. One thing is certain about this immigration reform bill, there will definitely be more enforcement in the workplace, with or without a new law. Right now, due to all of the political pressure exerted due to this immigration reform bill, Immigration has already started to enforce the existing laws more vigorously and therefore, it is incumbent upon all employers to conduct a "preventative internal I-9 audit" now, before they are audited by the government. Employers are required by law to complete a Form I-9, Employment Verification Form, for all of their employees at the time of hire, and this is meant to certify that they have reviewed the employees documents and that they are authorized to work in the US. This is required for all employees, even the native born US citizens.