421: How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Will Impact Roofing Contractors with Philip Siegel

Proactively conduct a self-audit of all I-9 forms for current and past employees to identify and correct errors before an official audit, as technical errors can lead to significant fines.

Ensure I-9 forms are accurately completed within three days of hiring, paying close attention to date formats and verifying documentation that appears reasonably genuine.

Be aware that ICE will scrutinize 1099 contractors during I-9 audits, investigating potential misclassification to skirt I-9 requirements; understand the current misclassification rules.

Separate I-9 forms from general personnel files and keep them in a dedicated binder to limit what ICE auditors can access during an audit.

Strictly adhere to I-9 record retention rules: keep forms for three years from the hire date or one year after termination, whichever is longer, and discard unnecessary older forms.

Implement a reverification process for employees with temporary work authorization, as failing to do so can result in knowingly employing an illegal worker.

Understand that a significant portion of your workforce, including key personnel, might be undocumented; an audit could lead to immediate loss of critical staff and disruption to projects.