ICE Reclassifies Common Form I-9 Errors As Substantive Violations: What Employers Need To Know

On March 16, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) quietly published an updated fact sheet titled Form I-9 Inspection Under Immigration and Nationality Act § 274A, which significantly revises how it classifies common Form I-9 errors. Without any Federal Register notice or proposed rulemaking, the updated fact sheet effectively overrides key provisions of the 1997 Virtue Memorandum, the guidance that had governed I-9 enforcement for nearly three decades. The practical effect is that numerous common Form I-9 completion errors that were previously treated as correctable “technical or procedural” violations have been reclassified as “substantive” violations subject to immediate fines, dramatically increasing employer exposure during I-9 inspections.