Employers operating in the state of California can get caught between a rock and a hard place with respect to complying with federal immigration requirements without violating California’s controversial Immigrant Worker Protection Act (IWPA), also referred to as A.B. 450.
Among other things, the IWPA, which went into effect on January 1, prohibits state employers from voluntarily consenting to a federal immigration enforcement agent’s request to enter non-public areas in the workplace or to voluntarily allow the agent access to employee records unless the agent provides a judicial warrant or subpoena.
In a significant new development, on July 5, 2018, a California federal court granted the Trump Administration a preliminarily injunction that partially suspends enforcement of the IWPA, more specifically those provisions allowing the state to (a) prohibit employers from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration enforcement inspections, and (b) prohibit employers from reverifying an employee’s work authorization. The court found that these provisions impermissibly interfere with the federal government’s immigration enforcement authority.
At the same time, however, the court left in place the IWPA’s requirement that employers notify employees, as well as the California Labor Commission, about any inspections of I-9 Forms or other employment records conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within 72 hours of receiving notice of an inspection.
The court’s opinion is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.