Latest news with #I-9s
Business Insider
10-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Companies have plans for extreme weather and workplace violence. Now, some are planning for ICE raids, too.
After federal immigration agents raided a Miami construction site in May, lawyer Alex Barthet got a call from a developer client seeking advice on what he should do if they showed up at his nearby property. Barthet said he recommended closing off the premises to visitors, putting up No Trespassing signs, and being ready to turn agents away if they don't show a proper warrant. "You create this little bit of a walled garden," he told Business Insider, though he conceded that workers could still get detained once they left the work site. Employers have long had response plans for extreme weather, active shooters, and other workplace emergencies. Now, some are quietly preparing for immigration raids, too — even if they believe everyone on their payroll is legally permitted to work in the US. Human resources, crisis management, and legal professionals say they're helping clients take the extra step to keep workers safe, minimize disruption to operations, and avoid being charged with hefty fees if they lack accurate employment-authorization documents known as I-9s. Preparing for an ICE raid may be especially relevant for employers in industries such as food processing and construction, they say, as these typically rely on immigrant labor. In some cases, workers are already not showing up for shifts, fearful of getting swept up in raids — though the arrival of armed agents in the workplace could be scary for anyone. ICE did not comment for this article. "We have a responsibility to protect employees," said Kim Minnick, an HR consultant in Napa, California, who developed a rapid response template for Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids earlier this year and posted it online to share with her industry peers. It features tips such as keeping within arm's reach a list of emergency contacts for any workers who get detained. "They may have minors waiting to be picked up at school," Minnick said. More workplace raids expected Since January, ICE has highlighted arrests made at worksites across the country, including a meat-processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska, a fire-equipment company in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and a Louisiana racetrack. It's part of an effort to meet the Trump administration's 3,000 arrest-per-day minimum. The administration has attributed the effort to protecting the nation. "Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security, and economic stability," Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told BI in a statement. ICE hasn't specified how many workplaces have been raided overall, though more visits could be on the horizon. Last week, President Donald Trump signed into law a bill that provides ICE with additional funding and resources to go after undocumented immigrants, including enough detention capacity to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 individuals. Developing a plan Employers are already mandated by the federal government to have at least a generic emergency response plan that is up to date, though not all do, said Bo Mitchell, president of 911 Consulting in Wilton, Connecticut. He suspects that some company leaders are fearful that preparing for the possibility of an ICE raid in particular could be misinterpreted externally to mean they're harboring undocumented workers or engaging in a political act. "Nobody wants to talk about it because of overtones of politics," Mitchell said. Yet those who don't take such caution may be putting their credibility at risk, said Michelle Sinning, a principal at Bernstein Crisis Management in Mission Viejo, California. "Your competence may come into question if you're not able to handle a high-pressure situation with confidence," she said. Companies can also face fines in the tens of thousands of dollars for every employee lacking proper I-9 documentation in the event of a surprise audit by ICE or another government entity, said Tina Ullmann, an HR consultant in Milford, Connecticut. Even a clerical error can be costly, she said. Preparing for an ICE visit In addition to ensuring those I-9s are compliant, employers should train workers who greet visitors to be ready to escort any ICE agents who show up to an area that isn't private but won't interfere with customers or other employees, such as a conference room, said immigration attorney Christine Rodriguez in Atlanta. These workers should then know to alert the right personnel to interact with the agents, such as the company's CEO, head of HR, or lead counsel, she said. ICE agents are not legally permitted to access private areas of a workplace without a judicial warrant, which will say "U.S. District Court" and bear the signature of a federal judge, said Evan Fray-Witzer, an immigration lawyer in Boston. By contrast, he said administrative warrants do not legally grant such access and so employers would be within their rights to deny entry to ICE agents bearing only one of those. Leadership or employees should never interfere with ICE agents' actions — even if they believe their actions to be illegal — or they could face obstruction charges, warned Fray-Witzer. Instead, he suggested trying to document the incident by recording video or taking notes, as these could come in handy should the matter lead to a lawsuit. "There is no benefit to the employer or the employee to try and talk ICE out of taking someone," said Fray-Witzer. "The best thing to do is get as much information as you possibly can."
Business Insider
09-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
How Trump's immigration crackdown is reshaping financial industry hiring, travel, and dealmaking
Investors and dealmakers may not be the obvious targets of Donald Trump's immigration policies — but the impact on Wall Street is already being felt. For firms that rely on talent from abroad and travel across borders to strike deals, the stakes are high. While no one's been grounded yet, anxieties are mounting in some corners, leading to more cautious travel plans and cross-border hiring pivots. It's also changing the M&A landscape, with more dealmakers scrutinizing immigration compliance before agreeing to buy a US company. Business Insider spoke to lawyers, executives, and investment leaders to understand how stepped-up border security and other immigration policies are changing daily life in finance — and what might come next. Here is what we learned, from staffing to M&A to business travel. Dealmaking Trump's immigration crackdown is forcing investors to examine the employee base of US companies they may be looking to acquire more closely, said Ted Chiappari, partner and head of immigration at the law firm Duane Morris. "We're working on one merger acquisition now, and that's their phase one," said Chiappari. "They want to check out the staffing first to make sure that their I-9s are in order before they go forward with the rest of the deal." Federal law requires that anyone hired to work in the US fill out a I-9 to verify their identity and employment authorization. Chiappari said it's long been a required piece of M&A due diligence but that many investors treat it as an "afterthought." "If they even considered it at all, they would just sort of shrug their shoulders and say, 'Look, if we get hit with a I-9 audit, we'll pay whatever penalties there are,'" he said. He added that Trump's policies are prompting firms to move the 1-9 due diligence component up the priority list. Failure to do so could mean getting stuck running a company without enough employees. "They're concerned because that really affects the viability of the business if they end up losing 25% of their workforce or end up having to pay a lot more money to find replacements," he said. Travel Isha Atassi, a partner with the law firm Fragomen in New York, said her financial clients are largely taking a "business as usual" approach to travel — even as other sectors take a more aggressive stance, issuing advisories or tightening guidance around international travel. Anxieties over travel are on the rise, however. Mark Dowding, chief investment officer of RBC's BlueBay unit, said neither he nor his team has slowed their travel. However, the British citizen is more worried than before about being turned away at the border, in part because he writes a weekly note that has occasionally been critical of Trump's policies. "I know I'm taking a personal risk, but I'm putting myself out there," he said, adding, "If they say I can't come in, then I can't come in. So be it." Concerns over border crossing are also leading to more conversations about travel visas and how to talk to border agents. "We have seen a lot more efforts to educate as to what should be said or what can be done," said Chiappari. He pointed, as an example, to a professional coming to the US for a business meeting or conference. While it's technically work, it's not "producing something in the US," he said, which might mean avoiding calling it "work" when talking to border agents. "We generally avoid the W word" at the border, he said. Hiring and staffing Companies outside the US are viewing the US crackdown as a potential poaching opportunity. For example, Danny Yong, chief investment officer of Dymon Asia, a Singapore-based hedge fund with offices across Asia, said his firm is targeting immigrant portfolio managers based in the US who might be interested in returning home. Immigration lawyers said they're seeing little to no slowdown in the financial industry's appetite for foreign labor, however, although the process is taking longer than before. "There is an understanding that the process may take longer and may be met with more challenges by way of requests for evidence or denials, and we are helping to manage timing expectations and flagging high-risk cases," said Atassi of the Fragomen law firm. One reason is that financial firms tend to have a lot of overseas offices, so if a firm hires someone who doesn't get the right US visa, they can just park them in a non-US office for a few years. "They have money, and so if they've got a superstar on their team, transferring someone to the London office for a year or two is just not going to make or break," said Chiappari. "It's a rounding error for these companies." Wall Street stars also have more visa options than, say, the average data scientist, Chiappari said. He pointed to O-1 visa, which is reserved for people who have reached national or international acclaim and sit at the top of their fields. "It's just a lot easier for a Morgan Stanley or a JPMorgan to say, 'This person's exceptional,'" he said, especially if they are responsible for "frontpage deals that everyone's heard about.'"
NDTV
20-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Trump's Crackdown On Undocumented Immigrants Hits Washington Restaurants
United States: When armed immigration agents made a surprise visit earlier this month to Pupatella, a trendy pizzeria in the US capital's Dupont neighborhood, they may not have made any arrests, but they delivered a clear message. The show of force, part of an "enhanced operation" by President Donald Trump's hardline administration, has had ripple effects through an industry reliant on immigrant labor, owners and others in the sector say. The agents asked to see employment eligibility forms known as I-9s, said Natasha Neely, vice president of Pupatella, which has several locations in the Washington area. "They did not have a warrant, and they did not have any form of paperwork, so they were turned away," she told AFP. A few hours later, agents showed up at Pupatella's Capitol Hill location, this time with a "notice of inspection," Neely said. The manager referred them to the restaurant's corporate office. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said it had arrested 189 undocumented migrants after handing out 187 such notices in the Washington area between May 6 and May 9. In a press release, it described the activity as an "enhanced targeted immigration enforcement operation focusing on criminal alien offenders." While the inspection notices are not unusual, Neely said, they are normally delivered by e-mail due to their administrative nature. "We have never experienced anything like this," she said, expressing confusion about why the restaurant had been targeted. Crackdown fear Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged "invasion" by criminals. So far, his administration has deported tens of thousands of migrants, with US courts hearing cases on allegations that the government violated due process in certain cases. Undocumented migrants are "the backbone of our industry. From top to bottom," Shawn Townsend, president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW), told AFP. In addition to the restaurant industry, immigrant labor plays a crucial role in many sectors of the economy, including agriculture and construction. Before Trump's inauguration in January, RAMW knew immigration enforcement "was going to be a priority of the incoming administration, and so we held our first I-9 training workshop," said Townsend. One restaurant owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he felt threatened when immigration agents recently visited his establishment. "I'm going to see what the repercussions of that are. Basically, I don't know whether they're going to fine me forever or try to put me in jail," he said. Labor impacts According to a survey by employment law firm Littler Mendelson, 58 percent of executives said they were concerned Trump's anti-immigration policies would create labor shortages. The manufacturing and hospitality sectors were the most concerned. Since his restaurant was visited, the owner who requested anonymity said "anyone who had any questions about their eligibility to work has left." "They were advised by advocates... to basically just lay low, not come into work." Townsend said that the "political climate" and economic challenges facing small businesses were likely combining to raise anxiety among restaurant workers. Increased immigration enforcement, as during Trump's first term in office, "creates a scenario where (staff) may not return to work," he said. Neely said employees at Pupatella were startled by the surprise ICE visit, but that the restaurant was taking steps to address the situation. "We've made sure all of the managers know what the restaurants' rights are and what each team member's rights are," she said. Nevertheless, the raids do have a chilling effect. "Let's be honest, if anyone shows up at any location in a federal uniform with guns and vests... that's unnerving."
Free Malaysia Today
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump's immigration crackdown targets Washington restaurants
Immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) arrested 189 undocumented migrants after handing out 187 inspection notices in Washington. (AP pic) WASHINGTON : When armed immigration agents made a surprise visit earlier this month to Pupatella, a trendy pizzeria in the US capital's Dupont neighbourhood, they may not have made any arrests, but they delivered a clear message. The show of force, part of an 'enhanced operation' by president Donald Trump's hardline administration, has had ripple effects through an industry reliant on immigrant labour, owners and others in the sector say. The agents asked to see employment eligibility forms known as I-9s, said Natasha Neely, vice president of Pupatella, which has several locations in the Washington area. 'They did not have a warrant, and they did not have any form of paperwork, so they were turned away,' she told AFP. A few hours later, agents showed up at Pupatella's Capitol Hill location, this time with a 'notice of inspection,' Neely said. The manager referred them to the restaurant's corporate office. The immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agency said it had arrested 189 undocumented migrants after handing out 187 such notices in the Washington area between May 6 and May 9. In a press release, it described the activity as an 'enhanced targeted immigration enforcement operation focusing on criminal alien offenders.' While the inspection notices are not unusual, Neely said, they are normally delivered by e-mail due to their administrative nature. 'We have never experienced anything like this,' she said, expressing confusion about why the restaurant had been targeted. Crackdown fear Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged 'invasion' by criminals. So far, his administration has deported tens of thousands of migrants, with US courts hearing cases on allegations that the government violated due process in certain cases. Undocumented migrants are 'the backbone of our industry. From top to bottom,' Shawn Townsend, president of the restaurant association metropolitan washington (RAMW), told AFP. In addition to the restaurant industry, immigrant labour plays a crucial role in many sectors of the economy, including agriculture and construction. Before Trump's inauguration in January, RAMW knew immigration enforcement 'was going to be a priority of the incoming administration, and so we held our first I-9 training workshop,' said Townsend. One restaurant owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he felt threatened when immigration agents recently visited his establishment. 'I'm going to see what the repercussions of that are. Basically, I don't know whether they're going to fine me forever or try to put me in jail,' he said. Labour impacts According to a survey by employment law firm Littler Mendelson, 58 percent of executives said they were concerned Trump's anti-immigration policies would create labour shortages. The manufacturing and hospitality sectors were the most concerned. Since his restaurant was visited, the owner who requested anonymity said 'anyone who had any questions about their eligibility to work has left'. 'They were advised by advocates… to basically just lay low, not come into work.' Townsend said that the 'political climate' and economic challenges facing small businesses were likely combining to raise anxiety among restaurant workers. Increased immigration enforcement, as during Trump's first term in office, 'creates a scenario where (staff) may not return to work,' he said. Neely said employees at Pupatella were startled by the surprise ICE visit, but that the restaurant was taking steps to address the situation. 'We've made sure all of the managers know what the restaurants' rights are and what each team member's rights are,' she said. Nevertheless, the raids do have a chilling effect. 'Let's be honest, if anyone shows up at any location in a federal uniform with guns and vests… that's unnerving.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's immigration crackdown targets Washington restaurants
When armed immigration agents made a surprise visit earlier this month to Pupatella, a trendy pizzeria in the US capital's Dupont neighborhood, they may not have made any arrests, but they delivered a clear message. The show of force, part of an "enhanced operation" by President Donald Trump's hardline administration, has had ripple effects through an industry reliant on immigrant labor, owners and others in the sector say. The agents asked to see employment eligibility forms known as I-9s, said Natasha Neely, vice president of Pupatella, which has several locations in the Washington area. "They did not have a warrant, and they did not have any form of paperwork, so they were turned away," she told AFP. A few hours later, agents showed up at Pupatella's Capitol Hill location, this time with a "notice of inspection," Neely said. The manager referred them to the restaurant's corporate office. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said it had arrested 189 undocumented migrants after handing out 187 such notices in the Washington area between May 6 and May 9. In a press release, it described the activity as an "enhanced targeted immigration enforcement operation focusing on criminal alien offenders." While the inspection notices are not unusual, Neely said, they are normally delivered by e-mail due to their administrative nature. "We have never experienced anything like this," she said, expressing confusion about why the restaurant had been targeted. - Crackdown fear - Trump has made deporting undocumented immigrants a key priority for his second term, after successfully campaigning against an alleged "invasion" by criminals. So far, his administration has deported tens of thousands of migrants, with US courts hearing cases on allegations that the government violated due process in certain cases. Undocumented migrants are "the backbone of our industry. From top to bottom," Shawn Townsend, president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW), told AFP. In addition to the restaurant industry, immigrant labor plays a crucial role in many sectors of the economy, including agriculture and construction. Before Trump's inauguration in January, RAMW knew immigration enforcement "was going to be a priority of the incoming administration, and so we held our first I-9 training workshop," said Townsend. One restaurant owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he felt threatened when immigration agents recently visited his establishment. "I'm going to see what the repercussions of that are. Basically, I don't know whether they're going to fine me forever or try to put me in jail," he said. - Labor impacts - According to a survey by employment law firm Littler Mendelson, 58 percent of executives said they were concerned Trump's anti-immigration policies would create labor shortages. The manufacturing and hospitality sectors were the most concerned. Since his restaurant was visited, the owner who requested anonymity said "anyone who had any questions about their eligibility to work has left." "They were advised by advocates... to basically just lay low, not come into work." Townsend said that the "political climate" and economic challenges facing small businesses were likely combining to raise anxiety among restaurant workers. Increased immigration enforcement, as during Trump's first term in office, "creates a scenario where (staff) may not return to work," he said. Neely said employees at Pupatella were startled by the surprise ICE visit, but that the restaurant was taking steps to address the situation. "We've made sure all of the managers know what the restaurants' rights are and what each team member's rights are," she said. Nevertheless, the raids do have a chilling effect. "Let's be honest, if anyone shows up at any location in a federal uniform with guns and vests... that's unnerving." vla/ev/des/aha
