Spotlight on US immigration enforcement for UK employers

If you’re a UK business with operations in the US, or you’re advising clients who employ staff there, it’s important to understand that immigration compliance works very differently across the Atlantic. Recent developments have intensified the focus on immigration enforcement. During the Trump administration, initiatives like Operation Safeguard have ramped up deportations and workplace inspections and, although the methods have shifted, the increased scrutiny remains. For UK employers with staff in the US, the message is clear: immigration compliance is no longer a back-office issue.

At the centre of it is the I-9 process – a federal requirement for all US employers to verify every new hire’s identity and work authorisation. It’s a simple form, backed up by documents like passports or visa notices, but easy to get wrong, and those errors can trigger government audits, fines, and even criminal penalties.

Enforcement in the US doesn’t mirror the UK system of sponsor licences and scheduled Home Office audits. Instead, it comes through three main routes:

First, I-9 audits, often triggered by tips or industry-wide sweeps. Second, H-1B and H-2B audits, focused on pay, job duties and visa conditions and often handled by email rather than on site. Third, and most seriously, raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement – unannounced visits by federal agents where there’s suspicion of undocumented workers.

So, let’s get a view on this. Tiffany Baldwin is an immigration lawyer at law firm Husch Blackwell in St Louis, Missouri, and earlier she joined me by video-link. First question, are businesses in the US proactively audited in the same way as they are in the UK?

Tiffany Baldwin: “Yes, to certain extent. It’s maybe less than 5%, it ebbs and flows, but they will spot check H-1B employers. They don't usually come to the company, though sometimes they do. A lot of times it is an email to the contact that was on the petition asking for information like, maybe, payroll records to make sure they're being paid the prevailing wage, to confirm that the work address is correct. So go down the line with that. Occasionally they will come to a work site to see if the foreign national is indeed working at that location. So they will check that. Maybe I will get a handful of those types of audits for H-1Bs in a year. It's not very frequent. It may increase under this administration and we don’t really know what triggers it, so it is kind of random. Also, I have some landscape companies and there’s a seasonal worker visa called the H-2B and for some of those visa numbers they have to show that they would be harmed if they didn't get these workers and so there are audits for those and, again, that is an email that is sent to the petitioning company asking for documentation, usually financial documentation, confirming that the workers are getting paid the correct wage, that they are working the full time hours, and also documentation about how they might be harmed if they didn't get these workers. So I just finished one of these last week where we showed, well, if we didn't get these workers there'd be so much overtime, or they would have to go through a staffing company. Staffing companies usually charge about three to six times what they would pay for direct employees, so to show the economic hit that comes from not being able to get these H-2B visa workers. So there's audits like that, and then there's the H-1B audits and, again, there’s not an insinuation that there are undocumented people, it’s just to make sure that the job and the salary is what is really going on.”

Joe Glavina: “Moving on to raids by US Immigration, Customs and Enforcement. Can you explain what happens when a raid takes place and which employers tend to be targeted?”

Tiffany Baldwin: “Again, that is one thing that's been really kind of random, or sometimes they target industries, but if there's a suspicion, or they've been tipped off, that there are undocumented workers at, let's say, a chicken processing plant, or manufacturing plant, or a hotel, so industries where there are probably a higher percentage of undocumented workers then they can get a warrant to go in and check documentation of the workers and detain them for deportation. Sometimes there are small raids on a restaurant or sometimes, again, there was a case several years ago where they picked up more than six hundred workers at a chicken processing plant in Mississippi. They’re supposed to come in with a judicial warrant assigned by a judge that specifies the names of the individuals they want to arrest, or they come in with a warrant to seize information that then may lead to the arrest of undocumented foreign nationals. Sometimes they come in without any warrant whatsoever expecting to have access but employers don't have to provide access unless there's a warrant. So that's kind of the raid side of it, but there's also the kind of gentler I-9 paperwork audits to determine if there are undocumented workers just by looking at the verification documents.”

Joe Glavina: “So what’s your key advice to employers watching this to help minimise the risk of a raid?” 

Tiffany Baldwin: “Yes, well, the key thing and what I’ve been trying to tell my clients is that, again, make sure your I-9s are in order because by reviewing those and doing kind of self-audits you can determine whether you have undocumented workers, or you might. Sometimes the documents that they provide are really good fakes. I've seen some really good fake green cards through the years but, again, as long as they're checking their documents and their internal systems are good then at least that might minimise the chance for a raid. But if, you know, one morning ICE officers - and that stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and they handle the interior immigration enforcement in the United States - and they come calling we recommend that there are policies in place and processes so that the receptionist knows to call, you know, Mr. Smith because he's the point of contact, and then Mr. Smith is going to call, you know, counsel so that they can work together to determine whether ICE has the appropriate documentation to be let into the private spaces of the facility to find the person that they're looking for, or the documents that they're looking for.”

Joe Glavina: “Moving on to the potential penalties. Here in the UK, an employee could be found up to £60,000 per illegal worker and, in some cases, company directors can face criminal prosecution. What are the penalties for US employers who violate laws like that?”

Tiffany Baldwin: “So the fines are not as steep and it will depend on the number, or if it's the first time, or if this is only one person versus 20 people. So I think it's like $15,000 approximately up to about $29,000 per individual. So again, it varies based on the context but if there's widespread knowing and wilful employment of undocumented, yes, there can be criminal charges for the HR manager or the company officials that should have known and ignored that fact. So yes, there are those repercussions. I don't recall anyone ever going to jail for that, but it’s on the books and we might see more enforcement like that in this administration.”

Joe Glavina: “So when it comes to helping clients to be compliant, is that typically focused on the I-9  process? So conducting some sort of internal audit?”

Tiffany Baldwin: “Yes, that's one of the compliance works that we do. Either kind of walking our clients through an I-9 internal audit or looking through those forms ourselves. Even if we don't find any unauthorised workers, there are still errors on that form that show a processing issue that there needs to be additional training - institution and practices in completing the employment verification process. So that is really kind of key, that proactive approach to making sure that their workforce is documented and authorised to work and making sure that their processes are being adhered to.”

Joe Glavina: “Final question Tiffany which is about HR’s role specifically. Is the immigration compliance side of the business something that the HR professionals, the HR team, takes on themselves or is there usually a separate part of the business that does that?”

Tiffany Baldwin: “No, usually it is HR. There are multiple different types of compliance issues that they have to deal with, and it is within the HR function. So that's why in a lot of companies there might be kind of more the recruitment onboarding side of HR, but then kind of the general management compliance, whether that's minimum wage, overtime, exempt or non-exempt, the difference between independent contractors and employees. So a lot of those kind of compliance issues do fall under HR and also the legal department.”

If you are a UK business with a presence in the US and you’d like further information or help with US immigration compliance please do get in touch with Tiffany. Her details are there on the screen for you.