On October 7, 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally put the brakes on its 2007 rule to amend its regulations and penalties arising from an employer’s receipt of a “No-Match.” The No-Match letter informs employers that certain information submitted by the employee does not match Social Security Administration (SSA) or DHS records.
In the proposed regulations, DHS defined certain procedures an employer needed to take within a specified time period to acquire a “safe-harbor” when receiving a No-Match letter or risk a criminal charge of hiring an illegal worker. However, under the new DHS leadership, the government rescinded its proposal to amend its No-Match letter regulations in favor of alternative compliance efforts to reduce the employment of illegal workers. Yet these alternative compliance efforts are sure to result in more monetary penalties on businesses and in some cases, loss of an employer’s workforce.