Rules on Employer Cooperation with Immigration Enforcement Authorities
After Gov. Jerry Brown assented several bills presented to him as new laws, California employers have a responsibility of having them at their fingertips lest they violate the new laws of the land. Among the several bills which are now, the law is the Immigration Bill. The bill passed by California legislators was a response to actions related to immigration by Trump’s administration. The new measures enacted relate to immigration enforcement at workplaces.
AB 450
AB 450 bars employers from granting permission to immigration law enforcers that do not have a warrant for accessing non-public places within workplaces except if they are in line with federal laws regulations. The only people that have the power to enforce this provision are California Attorney General and the Labor Commissioner.
Moreover, the new law forbids employers or any other persons acting on their behalf from willingly consenting or allowing an immigration officer to review, access or obtain any employee’s records without a judicial warrant or subpoena except if authorized by the rules and regulations of the federal law.
However, it is important to note that this does not apply to forms which have a notice for inspection or 1-9 records that deal with employment verifications. Upon receiving a notice of inspection, employers must within three days (72 hours) provide every current employee with the inspection notice.
What is a “Current Affected Employee”
Every “current affected employee,” (employees identified by the immigration agency as those that lack work authorization or those identified by the immigration office because of deficiencies in their work authorization documents.)
The notice which must relate to the affected employee should be hand-delivered by the employer at the workplace, by email or by mail if hand delivery proves to be practically impossible. Delivery should be done within 72 hours (3 days) upon receiving an immigration agency notice by the employer that provides inspection records results or 1-9 results.
Violations
In addition to that, the employment eligibility of current employees may not be re-verified by employers in a manner not stipulated by the federal law. First violations of these new provisions have civil penalties and fines that range from $2000 to $5000.
Subsequent violations will attract civil penalties and fines that range from $5000 to $10000. However, note that the new law will not restrict or prohibit an employer from complying with a memorandum of understanding which regards using E-Verify.
It is the responsibility of employers to let their employees familiarize themselves with the procedure to follow whenever they are faced with an inspection. The employer also has to make the employees know about the new prohibitions about granting willful access to immigration officials.
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