New Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter Are on Hold

On October 10, 2007, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer issued a preliminary injunction barring the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing new regulations that created significant obligations for employers to verify an employee’s authorization to work in the United States. The new regulations required employers to take affirmative steps after receipt of a “no-match” letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA); these letters identify employees whose reported social security numbers do not match those in the SSA database. Most significantly, the new regulations required employers to attempt to verify the work authorization of employees whose names appear in a no-match letter and to terminate any employees whose identity and work authorization cannot be verified. Employers who continued to employ unauthorized individuals would have faced civil and criminal penalties. The new regulations were scheduled to take effect last month.

The injunction barring implementation of the new regulation was issued in a lawsuit filed on August 29, 2007 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the National Immigration Law Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, along with other local labor organizations. The Court’s order granting the preliminary injunction remains in effect until the case goes to trial sometime next year or until a higher court intervenes. 

We will continue to keep employers advised as to the status of the regulations. For additional information concerning this or any other employment-related issue, please contact any of the attorneys in our New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles offices.

© 2007 KM&M

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