Mark Blondman and Gabrielle I. Weiss ●
For nearly 30 years, employers completing Form I-9s operated under a forgiving framework: make a minor administrative mistake, like a missing date, an omitted title, and you had 10 days to fix it without penalty. That safety net just got a lot smaller. Without a formal announcement or rulemaking process, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) recently posted updated guidance that reclassifies many common administrative errors as “substantive” violations subject to immediate fines. The practical effect is significant: errors that used to be correctable now carry per-violation penalties ranging from $288 to $2,861, and they add up fast.
Here’s what changed, why it matters, and what employers should be doing about it.
Continue reading “From Fixable to Fineable: ICE’s Quiet Overhaul of I-9 Violation Classifications”