Feds: Five Vermont dairy farms asked for workers documentation
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By ANDREW MIGA and SUZANNE GAMBOA The Associated Press - Published: November 21, 2009
WASHINGTON — Five Vermont dairy farmers are being asked to provide records proving their workers are legal, federal immigration officials said Friday.
The farmers, who were not identified, were targeted as part of a national crackdown on employers by federal officials.
There had initially been fears among Vermont's dairy farming community that many other farmers had been asked to provide documentation for their workers.
"That's inaccurate," said Gillian Brigham, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Homeland Security Department. "We served five notices of inspections (in Vermont)."
Vermont Agency of Agriculture spokeswoman Kelly Loftus said farmers were shaken up by word of the federal probes.
"A lot of the workers are like family … because if they go away there's no one there to do the work," she said. "They've got animals to take care of. It's a big concern."
ICE said Thursday that it plans to audit the hiring records of 1,000 employers as part of a national effort against businesses suspected of using immigrant workers who have entered the country illegally.
The audits are based on investigations and intelligence and include some businesses connected to public safety and national security, ICE said.
Hispanic workers from outside Vermont — not all of them in the country legally — are a mainstay of the state's dairy industry, which struggles to find people to fill the jobs. State and federal officials have generally taken a hands-off approach, since many of the workers present what appear to be valid work documents.
In Burlington and Middlebury, police have policies against bothering Hispanics about immigration issues unless they're breaking the law.
"Dairies are sacred," said Leslie Holman, a Vermont immigration attorney. "These farms are a big part of the production and the work is really hard. I've worked with these dairy farmers for years and the reality is they can't find the workers they need," said Holman, who is also national secretary for American Immigration Lawyers Association.
She pointed out that dairy farms do not qualify for workers under the H2A or H2B temporary visa worker programs because dairies need workers year-round.
Under the Obama administration, ICE has issued more than 2,000 audit inspections since it began its employer-focused enforcement April 30.
In July, ICE issued notices of audits to 654 businesses, the most issued in a single day until Thursday's 1,000 notices were issued.
The July-issued audits have led to $2.3 million in proposed fines. The fines are not final and can be negotiated. Of the businesses audited, the cases for 326 were closed for no violations. ICE is considering proposing fines in another 267 cases.
For those results, ICE reviewed 85,000 I-9 forms and 14,000 questionable identity documents for the July audits.
There is a range of violations and penalties businesses can face in the audits. ICE considers the business' size, effort to comply, seriousness of violation, whether unauthorized workers were involved and history of previous violations to decide penalty amounts.
Businesses with technical or procedural violations in their records get 10 business days to correct them. If significant violations aren't fixed, employers can face significant fines, according to ICE guidance on I-9 inspections provided by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Employers that knowingly hired or continue to hire unauthorized workers are required to stop doing so, could be fined from $375 to $16,000 per violation and may be criminally prosecuted. They also could be prohibited from contracting with the federal government and lose other government benefits, such as subsidies. Repeat offenders get the higher fines.
For violations considered substantive, such as refusing to provide I-9's, fines are $110 to $1,100 per violation.
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