Last month, President-elect Donald Trump named Tom Homan, former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as his “border czar.”
Homan has promised that the incoming administration will increase raids in the workplace as part of their broader immigration plan. It’s not yet clear which industries would be hardest hit, but there are clues from Trump’s first term.
“We are anticipating a resumption of the massive job raids under the first Trump administration that focused primarily on the meat and poultry manufacturing and processing industries. But we don’t know where the focus will be this time,” he said. said Marisa Díaz, director of the immigrant worker justice program at the New York City-based National Employment Law Project.
Construction, an industry that it depends on foreign-born workerscould certainly be among the targets of workplace raids, and contractors should prepare for the possibility of unannounced visits from federal agents, lawyers say.
what to know
According to the National Immigration Law Center, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can come to a workplace as part of an investigation into an employer. There are several reasons why they would be there.
As part of an external I-9 audit, federal agents visit a workplace to review employer records to obtain worker authorization. In those cases, contractors are given three days’ notice, said Shanon Stevenson, a partner at the Atlanta-based law firm Fisher & Phillips.
In a workplace raid, however, federal agents from ICE or Homeland Security Investigations would show up unannounced, Stevenson said. Immigration officers can only enter private property, such as a workplace, if they have it a court order signed by a judgeaccording to the NILC.
what to do
Stevenson said contractors should review the order extensively with legal counsel, but an unannounced raid by federal agents may not give employers more than a few minutes to react. In that time, he said, make sure the order is signed by a judge, make sure it has the correct legal name and address for the business, and email a copy of the order to the attorney labor and immigration of the company.
“HSI officers will not wait for your attorney to arrive before they begin their search,” Stevenson said.
When a warrant is named after an employee, the National Immigration Law Center says employers don’t have to say whether that employee is present that day or not, or lead ICE agents to the named employee.
The NILC also advises against helping ICE agents classify workers by immigration status or nationality, while monitoring agents to ensure they are complying with the order. In addition, NILC suggests that a voluntary party video record the raid, in case it is needed for future legal action.
Develop a plan
Either way, advance planning will be key to managing a workplace visit.
“GCs should work with counsel to develop a Rapid Response Plan against a raid to use if HSI executes a workplace investigation, including training key employees on how to handle such a situation,” Stevenson said .
Employee training includes knowing what breaking the law can mean. For example, managers or workers who help unauthorized employees escape from a workplace could face criminal charges.
Diaz said she and her co-workers have heard of an “increase in fear” for workers, whether or not they are authorized to work, as rhetoric about immigration has been directed at descendants Latin and South Americans.
“This has detrimental effects in the workplace in terms of workers’ ability to identify workplace hazards, feel safe to speak up and let their employers know if something is not just affecting them , but also to all his colleagues, “said Diaz.
