When ICE Comes Knockin’

May 16, 2025

Manufacturers must do their due diligence in protecting their businesses

Editor’s note: None of the content in this article should be considered legal advice. Businesses should develop their own policies in consultation with knowledgeable legal counsel. Business and immigration laws have been intertwined for decades, but Washington, D.C.’s current immigration crackdown is making employers especially fearful of ICE agents arriving at the door. “They’re looking for people who are unlawful in the United States,” says Aron Finkelstein, member and managing attorney at Murthy Law Firm in Baltimore. “And if they are unlawful or illegal in the U.S., then they are looking to see if they are working without authorization. That’s where employers have great concerns.” Here, three attorneys share their views on how to prepare for and respond to the appearance of immigration officials. In short, they say, get your I-9s in order, develop business continuity plans, and know your rights and responsibilities to the law and your employees.

The Documentation Picture

Employers must complete I-9s, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ employment eligibility verification, for every foreign-born person hired, regardless of whether the employee is a legal U.S. resident. The form documents the employer’s due diligence in confirming the employee’s identification and authorization to work in the United States through work permits (green cards) and passports from home countries. “Those documents together show that the person has lawful permission to work in the U.S. and their identity,” says R. Andrew Quietmeyer, Esq., senior immigration and nationality law associate at Kelly, Parker & Cohen LLP in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Employers can further protect against counterfeit IDs or mistakes such as transposed Social Security numbers through the voluntary e-verify procedure. While U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administers the I-9 process, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the hammer. ICE has long held the power to conduct audits and raids, but President Donald Trump’s second administration directives to prioritize noncitizens for removal have generated “a kinetic burst of energy” and encouraged agents to find “people to put on planes,” says John W. Mazzeo, senior director and associate general counsel at Vertical Screen in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. Businesses manifest in the outcomes because their workplaces are where those people are. And while ICE is the “scary agency” empowered to conduct raids, the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Unit (FDNS) can check employers for H-1B compliance, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division can investigate to ensure employers are paying their foreign national employees properly, says Finkelstein.

Prepare Now for ICE Action

Workplace immigration policies should be top priority in C-suites, say attorneys. “The first thing you should do is know what you’re doing right now—knowing the playing field and educating yourself,” says Mazzeo. “Control what you can control.” Businesses should get their files in order immediately and make the procedures for handling and administering them consistent and airtight across all locations. All documents should be current and, as far as the employer can determine, accurate. They include I-9s, the public access files required for H-1B, and agreements for F-1 visa students hired to work through the USCIS Optional Practical Training program. Employers can’t control whether employees violate the terms of their stays, but they can stay on the right side of the law themselves. “If you don’t want to have a problem, don’t hire unlawful people,” says Finkelstein. “If you’re doing it right, you’re not going to have employees who are at risk from your perspective.” Businesses found to be noncompliant can minimize penalties by performing fixes such as creating I-9s, he adds, but be prepared for repercussions. One family-owned business watched its workforce plummet from 60 people to 19 after it asked employees for the documents needed to create its first-ever I-9s. “I get that it creates major difficulties for businesses, but at the same time, the reality is that there are significant penalties for violations,” Finkelstein says. “We’re now talking about criminal penalties.” Procedural diligence protects a business from criminal liability, penalties, and fines, but that’s just one side of the coin, Mazzeo says. The other side incorporates the impact of immigration policies and enforcement actions on business operations. “You have to answer both of them,” he says. “Sometimes, legal questions and risk assessments are heavily influenced by business operations.” He suggested knowing the employment, immigration, and asylum status of foreign employees. Knowing their skills and schedules helps prevent schedule disruptions in case of someone’s sudden detention, deportation, or loss of work authorization. “Don’t treat noncitizen employees any differently from anyone else, but understand that you might have to fill that hole pretty soon,” Mazzeo says. “Make sure you’re compliant. Understand your workforce. Prepare for the worst, and be concerned with business continuity. How am I going to open up the shop on day two?”

When ICE Appears

In a climate of crackdowns, is it likely that ICE will knock on the door of boxmakers or suppliers? Perhaps not. Like any entity, ICE will concentrate on areas delivering the biggest bang for the buck—a group instead of an individual, a business with a history of infractions, and industries that traditionally rely on undocumented labor. But ICE’s vigilance is heightened, and manufacturing sites can yield enough people to make an enforcement event worthwhile. Agents today could also be more likely to pursue individuals who come to their attention, perhaps for committing a crime or letting their work authorization lapse. In general, ICE can engage with businesses through an I-9 audit or a raid, and employers should know about the differences between them before they happen. An I-9 audit is an on-site visit to scrutinize the validity of I-9s on file (and any business that doesn’t have them should compile them now, attorneys advise). ICE must provide three days’ notice. Businesses have the right to confine agents to designated spaces such as conference rooms and restrooms. The business has 10 days to rectify infractions, perhaps by terminating any unauthorized employees or updating inaccurate documents. Chances are, ICE schedules I-9 audits “because they know something already,” perhaps through detaining multiple employees outside of work or getting a tip, says Quietmeyer. “Your best bet as an employer is comply, comply, comply,” he says. “If there are issues with the I-9, talk to an attorney to minimize the potential for fines.” When ICE makes a surprise visit, including the dreaded raid, it’s imperative to know the difference between administrative and judicial warrants. An administrative warrant is usually presented as U.S. Department of Homeland Security Form 200 or Form 205. It’s signed by an ICE agent and allows the agent to possibly detain any unauthorized worker they find in the business’s public spaces, but it doesn’t allow them into employee-only areas. Employers have the right to ask agents bearing administrative warrants to wait in the lobby while they call their lawyers. Businesses must comply, notes Finkelstein, but compliance can amount to asking for a future appointment to discuss the agent’s concerns with a lawyer present. In contrast, judicial warrants are court documents, signed by a judge, authorizing agents to access the entire premises. The employer can ask agents to wait until an attorney arrives, but agents don’t have to abide. “If they come with a judicial warrant, then you have to step aside, and if you don’t step aside, a lot of guys dressed in green with big ICE letters on the back are going to walk in and step you aside,” says Finkelstein. Finkelstein adds that employers in the H-1B program now sign the Labor Condition Application, attesting that they will provide H-1Bs to FDNS without a warrant and on demand. Employers can politely ask for a meeting with a lawyer present, perhaps noting that the information presented will be better, but delays risk triggering a domino effect of consequences—possible case denial, reopening of approved cases, notice of intent to revoke approvals, and willful violator status that bars program participation. “The goal is to promote some type of conciliatory agreement,” says Finkelstein. The Wage and Hour Division can demand access to files within 72 hours and will usually send a letter in advance, advising employers of a visit to review the wage files of H-1B workers. During most actions, agents can talk to employees, but employees aren’t obligated to answer, other than producing identification when asked. ICE officers can detain employees listed in a warrant or those who provide, in Quietmeyer’s words, “articulable probable cause” such as trying to flee or providing an expired or non-U.S. identification. The first person ICE agents will encounter, usually a receptionist or security guard, must be trained in distinguishing the types of warrants and in company procedure, which should begin with calling the boss and the attorney. “The gatekeeper has to have the confidence to ask a whole group of people with badges and guns, ‘May I please see the warrant?’ and see if it’s an administrative warrant or a judicial warrant,” says Quietmeyer. Allow agents on the premises for as little time as possible, says Finkelstein. When seeking a later appointment, ask them to put their request in writing for the attorney to answer. A letter puts the ball in ICE’s court, can delay or even erase the issue, and establishes boundaries around ICE’s requests. “Our job as attorneys is narrowing the scope and giving them as little as possible of what they’re asking for, because whatever you give, they’re going to put it under a microscope,” he says. When ICE asks about a named employee, employers can’t sneak them out the back door, but must they hand over that person? The extent of engaging is a gray area and a question to be established in policy, in consultation with counsel, says Mazzeo. Conflicting considerations might weigh in the balance such as whether noncompliance can lead to license revocation versus the impact on production schedules if employees view the boss as a collaborator with law enforcement. “What’s going to happen to the rest of my workforce tomorrow now that I turned over one of their co-workers to ICE?” Mazzeo says. “How big can the hammer of justice be? I’m making that call as to how much we’re going to cooperate with any sort of investigation absent a subpoena or judicial search warrant.” Employers aren’t legally bound to say that someone works for them or is on-site, and they don’t have to point agents toward items they ask for such as files or computers, said Quietmeyer. They also should not violate privacy laws by providing personal information such as addresses or Social Security numbers. “People have this need to be nice and polite to officers,” he said. “They think they did nothing wrong, and so they should be cooperative, but they don’t have to be. However, ICE isn’t there to be your friend. Please be polite yet firm, be professional yet amiable, and be as compliant as you or your employer wants you to be.”

Internal Communications

Employers will make mistakes and can’t predict the future, but they can “be upfront” with the workforce, says Mazzeo. Sharing company plans and policies before ICE comes knocking “goes a lot further than hiding the ball.” Employers walk a fine line between guarding employees’ well-being and collusion to circumvent immigration laws, so they must “make sure you don’t get any mud on your skirt as well,” says Finkelstein. For example, benching H-1B workers without pay can lead to their deportation, and kindhearted employers might keep them employed without projects to work on. However, a new rule allows FDNS to interrogate workers one-on-one—an intimidating situation in which the employee might talk and the employer gets slapped with a violation. “Even people who are just following their hearts are trying to be fair to the employee from their perspective, but the government looks at it from the other perspective,” he says.

5 Tips for a Raid

Immigration attorneys offer these tips to safely navigate ICE events and their aftermaths:

- Be respectful, even when declining to answer questions or provide access.

- Advise employees not to run. Fleeing gives agents probable cause for detention or arrest.

- Keep security cameras running and correctly time-stamped. After the event, make hard copies for the attorney. (As for the legality of recording audio and video on cellphones, get to know state laws, which differ.)

- Keep I-9s separate from other personnel documents. Otherwise, agents looking into a matter could opportunistically spot unrelated items that merit further investigation.

- Take notes during the event and immediately after. Write times, agents’ names, badge numbers, where they went, what they said, and their physical descriptions. Note employees involved or detained, your questions, and your statements, and sign and date the completed documents. “As an attorney, if I had these notes for certain cases, we could have challenged a lot more things,” says Quietmeyer.