About five years ago, federal immigration officers came a-knockin’ at Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Advanced Roofing Inc.
Fortunately, CEO Rob Kornahrens said files were in order and he called it one of the best things that’s happened to his company.
Among the reasons, he said, is that he gained the acquaintance of a local immigration agent.
During Best of Success, Kornahrens shared both what he learned from the experience and a recent letter from that agent talking about the current strategy in dealing with immigrants, legal and illegal alike.
“Enforcement is up 400 percent,” Kornahrens read from the agent's letter. “What does that mean on the ground? We are conducting raids at actual businesses. Something that’s rarely happened in the last eight years. Construction was always a concern, and even more so now. We’re definitely going for criminal prosecutions of employers. We will go after the assets of a company’s owner as well.”
Kornahrens stressed the importance of making sure employees are not undocumented to avoid responsibility for any crimes that might occur while they’re working for your company.
“This is really important because we all have people out there, something could happen…they find out they’re illegal and you’re their employer, they can go after you and it sounds like they are,” he said.
Kornahrens offered other tips that Advanced Roofing uses to ensure easy compliance with immigration laws.
For example, to cut down on unnecessary paperwork and any potential risks, the company now only takes applications when it has job openings. Previously, Kornahrens said, Advanced Roofing constantly took applications to always have a bunch on-hand, which meant a lot of superfluous records.
He also suggested taking advantage of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program called IMAGE that allows employers to work with the agency to ensure compliance with laws.
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