Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace raids are usually more intense interactions than I-9 audits.

• ICE will simply arrive at a place of business without notice, sometimes quite early in the morning, immediately make demands of the employer’s personnel to produce information, documentation, and/or an individual, and in the process sow chaos and disorder amongst staff members.
• The apprehension of one or more foreign national workers allegedly on-site, the inspection of an employer’s premises,, and any other evidence of civil or criminal misconduct.
• While I-9 audits can reveal the presence of civil violations and/or even criminal acts that leave an employer liable for high fines and create an existential crisis, they rarely, if ever, lead to incarceration and removal. An ICE raid, however, is seeking to locate and detain individuals – spouses, parents, coworkers, community members – before ultimately deporting them from the United States.
  
  

In such sensitive and high-leverage confrontations, it is essential that U.S. employers and all their workers remain calm, composed, and as cooperative as required given the nature of the situation. Aggressiveness and obstinance may be your first instincts but they will only worsen the situation for everyone involved.

U.S. employers, especially those in sectors that employ more foreign national workers than others, should prepare for a potential visit from ICE by designating one or more managerial personnel at a workplace who will at least initially interface with the government officials demanding access to their facility. Employers should create an action plan for the company’s representative to follow so they are not left to guess how to react and, in so doing, create confusion and panic.

Respond to a Raid with an ICE Raid Playbook:

1. Notify the company’s officers/executives and appropriate counsel.
2. Demand to see a search warrant.
3. If the warrant permits ICE to enter a building, the representative may indicate that even though the company does not consent to a search, it also will not impede said search.
4. Request and record officers’ identities and monitor their activities to ensure they are abiding by the warrant’s dictates. In this vein, also obtain an inventory of all items seized, signed only by the officer.
5. Do not voluntarily provide information or documentation to an officer unless it has been specifically requested and/or appears within the warrant.
6. Alert employees that they need not seek out officers for discussions and advise them that the representative (or, if executives/officers or counsel have arrived on-site) may be present for any discussions with ICE officers. Obstructing access to employees and/or counseling employees to refuse to reply to an officer’s inquiry are not allowed.
   
   

These steps are general guidelines for how to respond to an ICE worksite raid but cannot account for a business’ particular characteristics or the specific reason for the raid, much less how to manage the raid’s legal fallout and potential bad publicity. For additional information regarding ICE raids, please contact us.