On December 9, 2009 Secretary Napolitano provided written testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in which she testified as follows, “ICE is also auditing the books of thousands of employers suspected of relying on illegal labor to achieve an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Indeed, in a single day this past July, ICE audited more employers suspected of hiring illegal labor than had been audited in all of last year, reviewing more than 85,000 Form I-9s and identifying more than 14,000 suspect documents. Last month, ICE announced an additional 1,000 workplace audits.”

Click here to see a copy of the ICE announcement of Nov. 19, 2009 regarding its stepped up enforcement ICE employer audits memo 11-2009.

Employers should make sure their I-9 forms are up to date and accurate and that their H-1B public files are current.