I hope all is well. Contrary to what President Trump said at the end of last week about ceasing raids on hotels and other industries, ICE reversed course and hotel and hospitality raids are back on the table.
Helpful handout on how to reverify workers’ employment eligibility, with a focus on those workers who are in the U.S. on Humanitarian Parole and Temporary Protected Status (TPS). More on the handout and the reason for including it is explained below.
As a reminder, yesterday we sent an email that the Trump administration on Friday instructed Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to no longer conduct raids on hotels, restaurants, and farms. However, last night the administration reversed this plan entirely, with senior ICE leadership instructing its local offices to ramp up its enforcement operations by doing everything “in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.” This unfortunately includes resuming raids at hotels and hospitality organizations. For those of you who have a Washington Post subscription, you can read a helpful article about this rapid reversal.
Historically, labor-intensive industries such as farms and factories have led to hundreds of arrests at once. Therefore, with the administration’s goal of 3,000 arrests a day, ramping up worksite enforcement in the hospitality and farming industries will help the administration in reaching its goal.
What does this mean for employers?
With the administration’s announcements of expanding efforts to detain and deport undocumented individuals across major industries, employers can expect to lose workers. Currently, undocumented immigrants make up 4.6% of the U.S. workforce with more than seven million people working in the agriculture, hospitality, and construction industries. Specifically, the hospitality industry would lose one in 14 workers due to their undocumented status (American Immigration Council, 2024).
Additionally, those individuals who were granted status through the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) Humanitarian Parole program and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuela, are at risk. The termination of CHNV and impending termination of TPS means those workers will quickly lose their status and underlying work authorization which will leave them exposed to arrest and deportation.
What employers should do: I-9 Reverification?
With all this in mind, employers should begin reverifying employment authorizations of workers who could be affected by government enforcement actions, including raids. I-9 reverification is required when an employee’s authorization to work in the U.S. expires. Therefore, especially with workers in the CHNV and TPS programs, employers must be proactively reverifying those workers now. Reverification will provide the employee a chance to submit alternative documentation to allow them to continue working legally. Failure to reverify could put workers with expired status and work authorization at risk of arrest and could subject the employer to I-9 audits and fines.
In short, the ramping up of ICE’s enforcement actions should be putting employers on high alert. Not only will government enforcement actions and raids affect those who are employing undocumented workers, but also those who are employing workers who will lose their status very soon due to the recent termination of various immigration programs. Therefore, organizations should begin reverifying workers’ documents now to allow workers the opportunity to submit updated or alternative authorization – and to ensure that employers are only employing individuals who are truly authorized to work. Acting early will help protect both the employee and employer from legal and compliance risks during this challenging time.
For more detail of how to complete the I-9 reverification process for CHNV and TPS workers, please refer to the linked Pabian Law I-9 Guide. Additionally, we encourage you to review the linked ICE Raids Best Practices document that provides helpful tips to organizations in case of an ICE raid.
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Thank you,
Keith and the Pabian Law Team