SAVE Act Reintroduced in House and Senate
On July 23, 2009, a bipartisan group in the House and Senate reintroduced “The Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act” (“SAVE”), which would require employers to use E-Verify to ensure that their workers are authorized to work in the country. This SAVE legislation is largely the same as the bill first introduced in Congress on November 6, 2007. According to its sponsors, the SAVE is designed to reduce illegal immigration by gradually phasing in the use of E-Verify and increasing border security with additional border patrol agents and new technology and infrastructure.
The SAVE legislation would phase in the mandatory use of E-Verify by employers over a four year period, starting with the federal government, federal contractors, and employers with more than 250 employees. Smaller businesses would be required to begin using the E-Verify system in a graduated manner. While passage now is uncertain, the reintroduction of the SAVE legislation reflects the public’s growing desire that employers hire and maintain only a documented workforce. Considered in this context, and examined against all the states that have passed legislation requiring the use of E-Verify, employers would be well advised now to become familiar with E-Verify so they can readily incorporate it into their operations when it becomes mandatory at the federal level.
The president of a Massachusetts military goods manufacturing company will pay a fine and serve up to 18 months in prison to settle charges stemming from a raid by federal immigration officials in March of 2007. The company will also have to pay a fine of $1.5 million. Under the terms of a plea agreement entered Nov. 3. MBI and its president and principal shareholder, pleaded guilty to several charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging that they hired illegal aliens, helped to shield them from detection, failed to pay them full overtime, and fraudulently misled the government. The company specialized in the manufacture of handbags and leather goods. Between 2001 and 2006, MBI won a number of Department of Defense contracts worth approximately $230 million. As a result of these defense contracts, the federal government said, MBI increased its workforce from approximately 85 employees in 2001 to approximately 650 people in 2006. 
to 2007; fraudulently misrepresenting Social Security numbers and committing mail fraud when it submitted Social Security numbers to the IRS and Social Security Administration knowing that many of the numbers had to be false given that many of the company's employees were illegal aliens; and failing to pay many employees overtime from 2005 to 2007. MBI's president pleaded guilty to helping harbor and conceal illegal aliens by allowing the company to submit false Social Security numbers for employees to the government as if they were real. 
On October 22, 2008, DHS announced issuance of the final Secure Flight Final 
Rule (the “SF Rule”). This followed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued in August 2007. In its final form, the SF Rule shifts responsibilities for review of pre-departure watch lists from individual aircraft operators to the Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) or CBP. This implements a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission by giving the government responsibility for monitoring watch lists.
Domestic and international carriers, and industry associations, have expressed many concerns in connection with the implementation of the SF rule. Among those, the fact the industry in general will need at least six months to upgrade its reservation and departure systems in order to come into compliance with the rule. Implementing the rule will also be extremely expensive, particularly, for an industry that has sustained large economic 
losses and operates almost at break-even point. Other concerns include travel disruption since the rule requires bulk buyers to provide the identities and personal information of each passenger 72 hours in advance of a flight; the disruption of foreign carriers operations by requiring passengers to be screened even if a flight does not intend to land in the United States; and the creation a data collection system likely to be at odds with other DHS data collection programs. The SF Rule will be implemented in two phases. First TSA will assume watch list responsibility for domestic flights in early 2009. Later that year, CBP will be given similar responsibility for international flights.