New rules likely to squeeze companies, immigrants

Dale Venturini is already bracing for the effects of a new crackdown by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on companies that employ illegal immigrants.
Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association, said that she’s been on conference calls with the White House and has compiled a two-and-a-half-inch-thick file on what has become known as the “no-match” rule.
“That’s how important this issue is to us,” she said last week.
What Venturini and other business leaders are preparing for is Homeland Security’s new regulation designed to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get a job.
The rule, which goes into effect next month, outlines how employers should proceed if notified that an employee’s name and Social Security number don’t match government records. If the discrepancy can’t be resolved within 90 days, the rule requires that the employee be fired.
And employers who don’t act could face stiff civil fines or criminal charges, according to Pat Reilly, spokeswoman for the division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Reilly said ICE will place a priority on “no-match” violations related to national security, public health and safety, and on those companies with a high number of Social Security discrepancies.
Also the focus of ICE will be on “critical infrastructure,” Reilly said, companies that work around transportation hubs, ports or power plants. “You want to be particularly careful that you’ve vetted your employees if they’re working in those areas,” Reilly said.
Venturini said that the association has scheduled a seminar next month featuring experts knowledgeable about immigration laws. “There are still too many questions,” she said.
Jamie Martel, an immigration professional at the law firm Sayer, Regan, Thayer & Flanagan LLP in Newport, said the seminar will outline, among other things, what documentation employers need to complete an I-9 form, which is used to verify an employee’s identity and their work status.
The no-match rule “forces employers to become document experts, which they are not,” Martel said last week. “The onus is on the employers to determine whether their employees are legal.”
Reilly, the ICE spokeswoman, said employers should receive no-match letters from the Social Security Administration if several employees have discrepancies.
Then the employer will have 30 days to make sure there weren’t clerical errors, Reilly said. Then the employee should be informed that he or she will have to contact the Social Security Administration to resolve the matter.
“It is the employer’s responsibility to check back to see that the situation has been resolved,” Reilly said.
The employee should be given a final opportunity to submit another document to prove legal work status. Barring that, “the employer should let them go because they shouldn’t have been hired in the first place,” Reilly said.
John Grady, executive director of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association in Providence, said his group supports cracking down on the employment of illegal immigrants. But the rule “will put a lot of burden on the small manufacturers,” he said.
And that’s creating anxiety among employers, according to David French, the International Franchise Association’s vice president of government relations.
“It puts the employers in an awkward position, on a knife edge,” French said.
Make the wrong decision one way – firing a worker after 90 days – and an employer could be charged with discrimination. Make the wrong decision the other way, and the employer could be charged with violating immigration laws.
The intent of ensuring workers are of legal status is “laudable,” French said. “But the reality is, this becomes a new, potentially burdensome obligation for the employers. It’s a nightmare.”
And not only for employers.
Fred Ordonez, project officer at Progreso Latino, a social service agency in Central Falls, said there is a fear that some workers will be fired just for receiving a no-match letter.
“Some employers, rather than risk it, may arbitrarily fire people,” Ordonez said. “For some people, they have no place to turn.”
Ordonez also predicted that the goal of the new regulation won’t be met. “It’s not going to make [illegal immigrants] go back to their countries,” he said. “They’ll just work somewhere else under the table.”
Ordonez said the best way to address the problem of illegal workers is to provide a way for them to obtain legal status. That way, he said, the federal government can “document who’s who.”
While it is aimed at illegal immigrants, the “no-match” rule will likely snag legal workers, victims of clerical errors or other minor problems, Ordonez said. “I expect to see a lot of regular Americans get caught up in this.” •