How trucking companies can prepare for ICE enforcement

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By Emily Kelchen | The Inside Lane

Immigration enforcement is once again in the spotlight—and trucking companies should take note. With ICE targeting labor-heavy industries under the Trump administration’s directive, now is the time to revisit compliance processes, especially when it comes to employment verification and I-9 protocols.

Attorney Scott Malyk has spent more than two decades advising companies on immigration law and compliance. As a senior partner at Meyner and Landis LLP, he’s helped employers understand what enforcement actions may look like—and how to prepare. We asked him to outline practical steps trucking businesses can take to minimize legal exposure and stay compliant. 

President Trump campaigned on overhauling our nation’s immigration laws, and we are now seeing that play out. Were most of the businesses you work with prepared for this shift?

No. It’s created a lot of uncertainty and really disrupted a lot of businesses, including those in the trucking industry. Historically, I-9 compliance was widely ignored by small and middle-market companies.  Or for some businesses, perhaps their hiring needs outweighed concerns about potential fines. Now everyone is paying attention, and immigration attorneys like me are urging our clients to take steps to protect themselves and their employees. 

What does that look like?

As the old saying goes, "the best defense is a good offense.” That is, the most effective way to protect yourself, your business, and your employees is to be proactive rather than passively waiting for ICE to come knocking at your door:

• Maintain organized employment records and documentation systems.
• Retain qualified counsel who specialize in immigration compliance to conduct a self-audit of your I-9 forms and train your onboarding staff on how to comply with the regulations going forward. 
• Enroll in E-Verify if your business is not already enrolled.
• Research different software programs—some specific to the trucking industry—that assist you with the proper onboarding of employees, many of which offer an “audit trail” that is easily printed and turned over to ICE in the event of NOI issues. But beware, not all such programs get you to 100% compliance, so these programs should be vetted by counsel.
• Designate a response team to an ICE intervention. 

What do you mean by response team?

This is fairly straightforward—choose a point person for each location (with a backup) to handle any interaction with ICE (e.g. HR director, compliance officer, legal counsel).  The response team should:

• know who to contact immediately in the event of an ICE visit (business owners, counsel, human resources) and do so;
• ask the ICE agents to identify themselves and provide their credentials;
• request a copy of any documents the ICE agents brought with them; and
• be familiar with how to verify warrants and respond to such warrants as required by law. 

If the ICE representatives are there to serve an NOI, under no circumstances should the response team waive the 3-business day window provided in the NOI to produce documents, unless legally required. Use this time to work with counsel to review and prepare documents for turnover to ICE. 

What are some signs that a business might be on ICE’s radar?

ICE does not forecast its strategies to the public—these are largely covert operations. That being said, ICE has limited resources, so historically, it tends to target businesses in labor intensive industries for which the agency is confident will have the highest concentration of unauthorized workers.

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The Inside Lane is curated and written by Shefali Kapadia and edited by Bianca Prieto.