Car Washes Targeted by ICE Illegal Worker Raids

News item from the blogosphere:

Earlier this year, Car Care Inc., a subsidiary of Mace Securities Inc., was ordered to pay a fine of $100,000 and to forfeit $500,000 to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a 2006 investigation. (At one time, Mace, a manufacturer of security and personal defense products, was one of the largest carwash chains in the nation.) Car Care Inc., based in the Northeast, had employees on the payroll who were using false identification cards to show legal status to work. $600,000! On top of that, five managers are awaiting criminal actions against them, personally.

Actually, I found this little tidbit while following a Google Alert on the I-9 employment verification form that employers must keep on file for each employee. The quoted tidbit is both newsworthy and instructional in and of itself, but it's also part of a blog posting by labor law attorney Jacob Monty.

Monty's whole point is how much safer and easier an employer's life becomes when he or she uses the E-Verify online database to check the "legal to work in the U.S." status of each new employee. The system is free, he says, works in about 10 seconds, and produces a document to file with each employee's I-9 that virtually guarantees you won't get fined by the government. Using E-Verify, you've done your due diligence, in other words.

The blog where Monty posted this was one for the carwashing and detailing industry, and he blithely warns his readers that car washes are "low-hanging fruit" when it comes to ICE illegal worker raids.

For his final advice, Monty warns, "ICE knows which companies are using the system and which are not—and they target those who are not using E-Verify."

I personally always rely on Personnel Concepts to keep compliant with the various laws and regulations of the nation, and that long-time labor law compliance company has issued an instructive and useful I-9 Compliance Kit. Highly recommended.