Worksite enforcement is back in the spotlight, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intensifies its use of Form I‑9 inspections to scrutinize employer compliance. These inspections are administrative in nature but can occur without prior warning and may result in significant civil penalties, operational disruption, and reputational risk for employers of all sizes and in all industries.
ICE recently announced a significant update on how it evaluates Form I‑9 errors during worksite inspections, effective immediately. Specifically, ICE has revised its Form I‑9 inspection fact sheet to reclassify several common I‑9 errors as “substantive” violations, considerably increasing potential penalty exposure for employers.
