Showing posts with label audits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audits. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Friday, 15 April 2011
Background Checks are Essential
FORT WORTH - East Handley Elementary School in Fort Worth needs involved parents just like any other school.
Except, at East Handley, one parent volunteer turned out to be a registered sex offender.
It didn't take a thorough background check to learn Jon Coots served eight years for a 1996 sex crime with a child since it can easily be found on the state's sex offender registry, which Sean Young and his wife were shocked to discover.
"I recognized him because I'm also in the PTA," Young said. "He's a very active member at the school. He's a member of the PTA."
Young immediately printed off the registry information and took it to the school's vice principal and principal.
"She just said, 'We should have caught it before now and we apologize,'" Young said.
Young had to fill out forms for a background investigation to volunteer, which is district policy. He said he asked the principal what happened to the paperwork on Coots.
"I think she said they had sent it to his house and that he never complied," he said.
A Fort Worth Independent School District spokesman, who declined to appear on camera, said school officials should have followed up. He also added that Coots was never alone with children in classrooms and did not go on field trips.
That doesn't impress Young.
"I've seen him alone in hallways during school hours," he said. "To me that's alarming."
The district said Coots will still be allowed into the school, but only under escort and to see his own children.
There are no new criminal allegations against him and police say no laws were broken because sex offenders who complete parole are not prohibited from helping out at a school.
But Fort Worth ISD spokesman Clint Bond told News 8 that all principals are being notified about the mistake so they can double check their own procedures.
Young said he believes the district should have sent letters home to East Handley parents. Bond said that at this point, there has been no incident involving children that would require parent notification.
by JIM DOUGLAS
Posted on February 25, 2011 at 10:39 PM
The Rest @ WFAA TV
Except, at East Handley, one parent volunteer turned out to be a registered sex offender.
It didn't take a thorough background check to learn Jon Coots served eight years for a 1996 sex crime with a child since it can easily be found on the state's sex offender registry, which Sean Young and his wife were shocked to discover.
"I recognized him because I'm also in the PTA," Young said. "He's a very active member at the school. He's a member of the PTA."
Young immediately printed off the registry information and took it to the school's vice principal and principal.
"She just said, 'We should have caught it before now and we apologize,'" Young said.
Young had to fill out forms for a background investigation to volunteer, which is district policy. He said he asked the principal what happened to the paperwork on Coots.
"I think she said they had sent it to his house and that he never complied," he said.
A Fort Worth Independent School District spokesman, who declined to appear on camera, said school officials should have followed up. He also added that Coots was never alone with children in classrooms and did not go on field trips.
That doesn't impress Young.
"I've seen him alone in hallways during school hours," he said. "To me that's alarming."
The district said Coots will still be allowed into the school, but only under escort and to see his own children.
There are no new criminal allegations against him and police say no laws were broken because sex offenders who complete parole are not prohibited from helping out at a school.
But Fort Worth ISD spokesman Clint Bond told News 8 that all principals are being notified about the mistake so they can double check their own procedures.
Young said he believes the district should have sent letters home to East Handley parents. Bond said that at this point, there has been no incident involving children that would require parent notification.
by JIM DOUGLAS
Posted on February 25, 2011 at 10:39 PM
The Rest @ WFAA TV
Monday, 28 March 2011
I-9 Audits Doubled in 2010, New Federal Employment Compliance Inspection Center Opened
The Obama administration plans to intensify a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants with the establishment of an audit office designed to bolster verification of company hiring records.
In an interview, John Morton, chief of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said the Employment Compliance Inspection Center would "address a need to conduct audits even of the largest employers with a very large number of employees." The office would be announced Thursday, he said.
.Mr. Morton said that the center would be staffed with specialists who will pore over the I-9 employee files collected from companies targeted for audits.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010, ICE conducted audits of more than 2,740 companies, nearly twice as many as the previous year. The agency levied a record $7 million in civil fines on businesses that employed illegal workers.
Enforcement activity during the Bush administration focused on high-profile raids in which thousands of illegal immigrants were arrested and placed in deportation proceedings. Relatively few companies and their executives were prosecuted.
In contrast, the Obama administration has made employers the center of its immigration policy with "silent raids." Critics say the policy has penalized small employers while failing to target larger employers.
Mr. Morton said the new center would have the "express purpose" of providing support to regional immigration offices conducting large audits. "We wouldn't be limited by the size of a company," he said.
The audits, which have affected garment makers, fruit growers and meat packers, result in the firing of every illegal immigrant on a company's payroll. Companies say this has hurt them, especially as they can't attract American workers even during an economic downturn.
Last year, for example, Gebbers Farm, an agricultural concern in Brewster, Wash., dismissed an estimated 550 workers—about a quarter of the local population—after ICE told the company a number of its employees' hiring documents were suspect. The company declined to comment for this article.
Tom Roach, an immigration attorney in Pasco, Wash., said a client lost more than half of his workforce last year owing to an audit. "He had paid every nickel of taxes on them," he said. But the employees had presented social-security cards that the landscape company couldn't discern were fake, said Mr. Roach.
Small business owners, in particular, say they don't have the ability to police their workers. They also fear discrimination suits, as some companies have experienced, for demanding additional documents from workers whom they suspect are in the country illegally.
View Full Image
Associated Press
A U.S. immigration agent, second from left, led away three men during a search at a Poplar Bluff, Mo., restaurant last August.
.Angelo Paparelli, an immigration attorney in New York and southern California, said: "We need to take employers out of the business of performing government functions, like playing immigration police."
"Ultimately, it is in a company's best financial interest to proactively comply with the law now rather than to face potential fines or criminal prosecution for noncompliance in the future," an ICE spokeswoman said.
Mr. Morton said ICE was also seeking to expand a program enabling businesses to work with the federal government to ensure they are employing people authorized to work in the U.S. Called IMAGE, or ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers, the voluntary program includes training and assessments to help a company guard against hiring illegal employees.
Mr. Morton will also announce Thursday that Tyson Foods, Inc., which employs 100,000 people and has fought immigration troubles in the past, has joined the program, agreeing to an audit of "a certain portion of existing records." The poultry processor, which says it has already taken steps to maintain a legal workforce, also agreed to establish an internal auditing process, Mr. Morton said.
Mr. Morton suggested Tyson could pave the way for other big companies to join the program. Tyson faced federal human-smuggling charges in a high-profile trial that resulted in acquittal in 2003.
"We...believe this partnership will enhance our ability to collaborate with government officials on immigration-related matters," said Tyson Chief Human Resources Officer Ken Kimbro.
"Tyson realized that employment of unauthorized workers posed a risk to their operations and stepped forward to manage that risk," says Mark Reed, a former immigration agent who runs Border Management Strategies, a consulting firm which has advised Tyson.
Since ICE initiated the IMAGE program in 2006, only 115 companies have signed on, with many reluctant to open their books to government scrutiny and to invest in training and new systems to bolster their employer-verification process, experts say.
About 11 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S., according to government estimates. Without them, experts say, such industries as construction, lodging and agriculture would be forced to radically change how they operate—sharply boosting costs for consumers or curtailing the services they provide.
Originally published 1/20/2011 By MIRIAM JORDAN
The Rest @ The Wall Street Journal
In an interview, John Morton, chief of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said the Employment Compliance Inspection Center would "address a need to conduct audits even of the largest employers with a very large number of employees." The office would be announced Thursday, he said.
.Mr. Morton said that the center would be staffed with specialists who will pore over the I-9 employee files collected from companies targeted for audits.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010, ICE conducted audits of more than 2,740 companies, nearly twice as many as the previous year. The agency levied a record $7 million in civil fines on businesses that employed illegal workers.
Enforcement activity during the Bush administration focused on high-profile raids in which thousands of illegal immigrants were arrested and placed in deportation proceedings. Relatively few companies and their executives were prosecuted.
In contrast, the Obama administration has made employers the center of its immigration policy with "silent raids." Critics say the policy has penalized small employers while failing to target larger employers.
Mr. Morton said the new center would have the "express purpose" of providing support to regional immigration offices conducting large audits. "We wouldn't be limited by the size of a company," he said.
The audits, which have affected garment makers, fruit growers and meat packers, result in the firing of every illegal immigrant on a company's payroll. Companies say this has hurt them, especially as they can't attract American workers even during an economic downturn.
Last year, for example, Gebbers Farm, an agricultural concern in Brewster, Wash., dismissed an estimated 550 workers—about a quarter of the local population—after ICE told the company a number of its employees' hiring documents were suspect. The company declined to comment for this article.
Tom Roach, an immigration attorney in Pasco, Wash., said a client lost more than half of his workforce last year owing to an audit. "He had paid every nickel of taxes on them," he said. But the employees had presented social-security cards that the landscape company couldn't discern were fake, said Mr. Roach.
Small business owners, in particular, say they don't have the ability to police their workers. They also fear discrimination suits, as some companies have experienced, for demanding additional documents from workers whom they suspect are in the country illegally.
View Full Image
Associated Press
A U.S. immigration agent, second from left, led away three men during a search at a Poplar Bluff, Mo., restaurant last August.
.Angelo Paparelli, an immigration attorney in New York and southern California, said: "We need to take employers out of the business of performing government functions, like playing immigration police."
"Ultimately, it is in a company's best financial interest to proactively comply with the law now rather than to face potential fines or criminal prosecution for noncompliance in the future," an ICE spokeswoman said.
Mr. Morton said ICE was also seeking to expand a program enabling businesses to work with the federal government to ensure they are employing people authorized to work in the U.S. Called IMAGE, or ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers, the voluntary program includes training and assessments to help a company guard against hiring illegal employees.
Mr. Morton will also announce Thursday that Tyson Foods, Inc., which employs 100,000 people and has fought immigration troubles in the past, has joined the program, agreeing to an audit of "a certain portion of existing records." The poultry processor, which says it has already taken steps to maintain a legal workforce, also agreed to establish an internal auditing process, Mr. Morton said.
Mr. Morton suggested Tyson could pave the way for other big companies to join the program. Tyson faced federal human-smuggling charges in a high-profile trial that resulted in acquittal in 2003.
"We...believe this partnership will enhance our ability to collaborate with government officials on immigration-related matters," said Tyson Chief Human Resources Officer Ken Kimbro.
"Tyson realized that employment of unauthorized workers posed a risk to their operations and stepped forward to manage that risk," says Mark Reed, a former immigration agent who runs Border Management Strategies, a consulting firm which has advised Tyson.
Since ICE initiated the IMAGE program in 2006, only 115 companies have signed on, with many reluctant to open their books to government scrutiny and to invest in training and new systems to bolster their employer-verification process, experts say.
About 11 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S., according to government estimates. Without them, experts say, such industries as construction, lodging and agriculture would be forced to radically change how they operate—sharply boosting costs for consumers or curtailing the services they provide.
Originally published 1/20/2011 By MIRIAM JORDAN
The Rest @ The Wall Street Journal
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