Immigration impasse borders on crisis: dependent on guest workers, restaurateurs urge Congress to end inaction

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 13, 2008 by Ron Ruggless

In the last week of September alone, immigration authorities in California made more than 1,157 arrests, many of them immigrants already facing deportation orders.

Chapman says that's a direct result of federal government inaction.

"Congress has adamantly refused to act, despite the fact that people in Congress know there is an economic demand for these workers," he says. "Now we are seeing the collateral damage with this heavy enforcement."

Protect your business when filing

Gerard M. Chapman, a principal with the Chapman Law Firm in Greensboro, N.C., offers this hiring-practice advice for business owners, large or small, to work within documentation laws:

* Make copies of the 1-9 documents given to the worker and staple them to the back of the 1-9 form.

* Fill those forms out religiously and carefully.

* Put a tickler system in place to review them every 12 to 18 months.

* Follow up if you hear or see something that raises questions about the authenticity of the documents. Retain documents for one year after a worker leaves or three years after date of hire, whichever is later.

rruggles@nrn.com