On January 20, 2011, the Obama Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the creation of a new "audit office" to help increase government verification of company's hiring records. The office will be referred to as the Employer Compliance Inspection Center.
ICE chief John Morton claims that the new Employer Compliance Inspection Center has the express purpose of assisting regional audit centers with auditing large businesses. Morton claims that ICE would no longer be limited by the size of the company.
Corporate Immigration Attorney's Take
The Obama Administration has made it their goal to enforce immigration law delegating immigration enforcement to businesses to make sure that they are not employing unauthorized workers.
Not only does the creation of the Employer Compliance Inspection Center mean that ICE will now have the resources to audit the largest businesses, but it will likely allow ICE to substantially increase the amount of audits it conducts in total.
This news makes it difficult to deny the importance of employers conducting I-9 audits on their own I-9s and creating immigration compliance plans policies and procedures. Pat Mack Corporate Immigration Attorney Recommended Training