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Recent Worksite Enforcement Raids-the makings of a record-setting year

By Kevin Lashus

The first quarter of this year saw a rash of government worksite enforcement raids. At this pace, the government will easily eclipse last year's record for employer sanctions actions:

On January 24, 2007, eleven workers were arrested in Chicago, Illinois. CleanPol, a residential and business sanitation company employed all the women.

On Valentine's Day, fifty-one illegal workers were arrested at two UPS warehouses in Auburn, Washington outside of Seattle. USP Supply Chain Solutions, a UPS subsidiary that operates UPS warehouses and Spherion, a temporary-employment agency that helped staff the facilities, employed the workers.

On February 22, 2007, over three hundred janitors employed by Nevada-based Rosenbaum-Cunningham International, Inc. were arrested in sixty-three different locations in eighteen states and the District of Columbia. Three of RCI's executives were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to harbor illegal aliens for profit. The illegal workers were employed at restaurants including the House of Blues, Hard Rock Café, ESPN Zone, Planet Hollywood, and others. The investigation began in July 2005.

On February 27, 2007, seventeen undocumented workers were arrested at Cano Packaging, which provides packaging services for the confections and food industry. Cano Packaging is a company located on the outskirts of downtown Chicago in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The government investigation began sometime in October 2006.

On March 1, 2007, sixty-seven illegal workers were arrested at a raid at Super Express Van Tours in southeast Houston, Texas.

On March 6, 2007, thirty-six workers were arrested at Janco, a fiberglass fabrication company.

Janco is a company located in Mishawaka, Indiana. More than 50 special agents surrounded the factory before a large white bus transported the detained workers to Broadview, Illinois. The government investigation began in late 2006.

The same day, 361 workers were arrested at Michael Bianco Inc., a factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Included in the arrests were the owner of the company and three managers. The executives were charged with conspiring to encourage or induce illegal aliens to reside in the United States, and conspiracy to hire illegal aliens. It is alleged that the company was aware that many of its employees used fraudulent Alien Registration Cards and Social Security cards to obtain employment. The company specializes in the manufacture of handbags and other fine leather goods. The investigation began in late 2005.

On March 8, 2007, eleven workers were arrested at Raphael's Party Rentals, a long-established business that services the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar outside of San Diego, California.

On March 9, 2007, fourteen workers were arrested at Sun Dry Wall & Stucco Inc. in Sierra Vista, Arizona, outside of Tucson. The company president and the firm's human resources manager were also taken into custody.

On March 29, 2007, sixty-nine workers were arrested at Jones Industrial Network. ICE agents executed a criminal search warrant, civil warrants, and conducted consent searches at nine business locations. ICE also seized a bank account belonging to the company worth more than $630,000. The Baltimore area business provided temporary workers for local companies, including the sportswear fashion maker Under Armour Inc. The investigation began in 2006.

The same day, seventy-seven workers on construction projects in four states were arrested following a five-month ICE worksite enforcement investigation. Many of the workers were employed by Greenville, Mississippi-based Tarrasco Steel. ICE has alleged that Jose Gonzalez, the Tarrasco Steel owner falsified and altered information on the I-9 employee eligibility forms.

On April 4, 2007, sixty-two managers and employees were arrested by ICE at Quality Service Integrity Inc., a cleaning service operating within the Cargill Meat Solutions Plant in Beardstown, Illinois. A criminal complaint charges two QSI managers with aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft in connection with the alleged hiring of illegal aliens. The affidavit filed under seal alleged managers knowingly hired illegal aliens to work at QSI.

On April 17. 2007, nineteen employees of Worley & McCullough Inc., a potato farm and processing plant, were arrested in Monte Vista, Colorado. The eleven-month investigation resulted in criminal charges against three employees: the general manager, company foreman, and another employee. The Office of the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General assisted ICE with the investigation and the execution of the search warrants.

Three days later, thirteen employees were arrested at Eagle Bag, an Oakland, California packaging facility. ICE conducted a Form I-9 compliance audit that revealed that more than two-thirds of the workforce submitted counterfeit immigration documents bearing fraudulent alien registration numbers.

Cognizant that civil and criminal penalties flow from the renewed enforcement of federal employment-eligibility verification law requirements, employers and their counsel should be mindful of the following:

Employers must be intimately aware of and remain constantly vigilant of their Form I-9 employment-eligibility verification requirements.
Employers must require that prospective employees complete Form I-9s within three days of their hire.
The employer must examine the genuineness of the documents presented and record that the documentation presented proves the employee's identity and employment eligibility.
Vigilance requires re-verification of employment eligibility for all hires and must occur prior to the date that work authorization is due to expire.
Employers must have a system of document verification beyond compliance in Basic Pilot.
Employers must be prepared to deal immediately when presented with any situation which tends to suggest an employee may have, or has revealed to management that they, presented false documents during the Form I-9 review process.
Employers must be prepared to have a competent third party audit their Form I-9 documentation to discover correctible or recurring errors in order to minimize civil and criminal exposure.
Finally, employers must be prepared for worksite enforcement actions at any time. Every employer is potentially subject to a raid. The employer should have contingency plans in place for dealing with the ramifications of losing significant portions of its operating labor without notice.

Given the nature of the fraudulent documentation and the lack of government assistance with employment eligibility verification when presented with such sophisticated documents, it is easy to see how these firms could have been ill prepared for dealing with the consequences of the government raids. However, awareness of the law and its liabilities are the first of a multi-tiered process in minimizing significant exposure.