What Employers Should Know As The Immigration Crackdown Escalates

Forbes

6 hours ago

Law enforcement walk with Leonardo Fabian Cando Juntamay as he was detained in the Bronx during ... More ICE-led operations on January 28, 2025, in New York. Employers must navigate a perilous legal landscape if employees lose legal status or encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement.(Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Employers must navigate a perilous legal landscape if employees lose legal status or encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration ended humanitarian parole for over 500,000 people and has terminated Temporary Protected Status for several hundred thousand individuals. That loss of authorized workers combined with raids on businesses and arresting people at courthouses leaves many employers and employees in legal danger.
On June 12, 2025, the Trump administration ended the CHNV humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, removing work authorization for up to 528,000 people. Workers with Temporary Protected Status from Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan and other countries are also seeing their employment authorization terminated. Employers may not realize workers previously authorized are now unable to work legally.
In guidance to clients, Chris Thomas of Holland & Hart recommends that businesses check their records to know if their employees have lost employment authorization. 'The government's recent publication could be construed as placing employers on notice that employees from the four affected countries, with CHNV parole, may no longer have employment authorization.'
He advises employers to meet with employees and inquire if they received a government notice revoking work authorization and, if that's the case, ask for other evidence of the ability to work lawfully. Thomas notes that if an employee in a parole program applied for asylum, they may have an employment authorization document via that route.
If an employee does not have an alternative form of work authorization, they should be informed their employment with the company may end on June 23, 2025. 'The approach is to offer 10 days in which to act once an employer has been placed on notice of a problem with an employee's status,' according to Thomas. 'Because the Department of Homeland Security typically allows employers 10 days to resolve issues identified during I-9 audits, applying the same time frame here offers a reasonable and practical approach to addressing this unexpected and sudden development.'
If ICE comes to the workplace, a manager may feel a need to respond quickly, which could be a mistake. 'If there is any encounter with ICE or other form of immigration enforcement at a worksite, the employer should immediately reach out to an immigration attorney,' said Allen Orr of the Orr Immigration Law Firm. 'There can be a formal statement, such as 'It is our company policy that only our attorney can speak with federal agents. We will get them on the phone for you right now.''
Orr notes that employers can check employee records to see who will be affected by TPS or parole programs ending. 'Of course, it is unlawful for any employer to knowingly hire or employ any undocumented worker, so any action taken by employers that could reveal, expose or educate them to such knowledge, is a business decision,' he said.
Orr recommends businesses have contingency plans that include what happens if ICE shows up at a worksite, if an employee is unexpectedly missing from a work site, recruitment they may need to backfill if a problem presents itself and the proactive steps the company wishes to take on their employment verification process and audit procedures.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the ... More White House on April 18, 2025. (Photo by)
Businesses should be under no illusions that they will be immune to immigration enforcement. After hearing from company executives alarmed at the negative labor market impacts of the administration's immigration policy, Donald Trump announced on social media, 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.' Reuters reported, 'ICE issued guidance that day pausing most immigration enforcement at agricultural, hospitality and food processing businesses.'
A few days later, DHS reversed the policy, stating, 'Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability.' Stephen Miller ordered ICE to arrest 3,000 people a day to achieve one million deportations a year and to go to Home Depot and other businesses rather than focus on criminals. That helped precipitate the ICE arrests in Los Angeles and the protests that followed. The reversal from Trump's statement leaves many believing Stephen Miller is the most powerful person in the administration on immigration policy.
When employees lose employment authorization, it places workers and employers in jeopardy. According to Chris Thomas, 'Failure to take affirmative steps to address such a situation could lead to significant legal consequences.'