Hilton In Naples, FL Signs Up For The IMAGE Program
On May 26, 2010, the Hilton Naples signed an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to participate in the voluntary IMAGE program. This is the first company in the city of Naples, Florida to sign up for the IMAGE program. IMAGE, or ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers, is a government initiative designed to improve employer self-compliance. Employers participating in IMAGE must submit first to a Form I-9 audit by ICE and verify all of their employees' social security numbers through the Social Security Number Verification System (SSNVS). Employers are also obligated to sign up for E-Verify, conduct I-9 audits semiannually using a neutral party, ensure that only trained employees complete Form I-9 and use E-Verify, set protocols for responding to no-match letters, and much more. Employers using E-Verify must sign a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU which requires them to allow ICE (DHS) and SSA or their authorized agents or designees to "make periodic visits" to the employer.
IMAGE is NOT a “safe harbor” for employers. ICE has not indicated that IMAGE “partners” will not be subject to enforcement actions. Moreover, E-Verify participants have been subject to worksite enforcement actions. Given ICE’s inspection powers under IMAGE an employer should seriously consider the consequences of implementing these practices.
Florida led the nation in Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits in 2009. Statistics generated from PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) show that about 2000 new cases were filed in United States District Courts in Florida last year, far more than in any other state. 
A report by the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, the federal agency charged with enforcing minimum wage, overtime and other labor laws, "is failing in that role, leaving millions of workers vulnerable," according to an 
On November 7, 2008, Associated Press reported “Federal officials say they have deported more than 12,000 illegal immigrants from Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 12 months ending in October.” The number of deported foreign nationals provided by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) is actually 12,753. This number includes immigration violators, fugitives, and foreign nationals convicted of deportable crimes (i.e. felonies and certain misdemeanors). This number also represents, roughly, a 25% increase in the number of deportations from the prior fiscal year (9,105). DHS’ fiscal year begins every October 1st.
On October 10, 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") in a special dedication ceremony, which included hosting its first naturalization ceremony for 29 children, officially opened its newest field office in Orlando. This field office, 37,000 square-foot facility, will provide full-service immigration processing, from fingerprints to naturalization, for people of Central Florida. The official release states that "the new office is based on a national model for new USCIS office locations throughout the country, and includes resources necessary to accommodate more than 450 customers daily." The Orlando Field office is part of USCIS’ Southeast Region, responsible for district and field office operations including the management of more than 900 government and contract employees in the southeast region of the U.S. The region covers a geographic area from North Carolina south to Florida, west to Louisiana and also to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The EB-5 program was created by Congress as part of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act (“INA”) of 1990. Under section 203(b)(5) of the INA, 10,000 immigrant investor visas (green cards or EB-5 visas) per year are available to qualified individuals seeking permanent resident status on the basis of their engagement in a new commercial enterprise. Of the 10,000 investor visas available annually, 5,000 are set aside for those who apply under a pilot program involving a designated “Regional Center.” There are more than 20 such designated EB-5 programs nationwide. “Regional Center” is an entity, organization or agency that has been approved as such by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”). “Regional Center” designation focuses on a specific geographic area within the United States and seeks to promote economic growth through increased export sales, improved regional productivity, creation of new jobs, and increased domestic capital investment. The Lake Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa Resort has become Florida’s first designated EB-5 Regional Center by USCIS. The designation, known as the “EB-5” immigrant investor program, allows foreign nationals to become lawful permanent residents (LPR or green card holders) of the United States by investing at least a $1 million in a project that creates at least 10 jobs. Lake Buena Vista & Spa Resort plans to build 1,300 condo-hotel units. The resort is planned for 1,875 furnished resort condo units ranging from 1,080-2,170 square feet, along with dining, a fitness center, spa-salon, aquatic center, and other amenities. The EB-5 program will help to finance the construction of a new 152-unit building at the resort.
The ACLU issued a press release regarding the ACLU Guide To Florida's "No Match" Voter ID Law, Tuesday, 30 September 2008, 4:24 pm. I reproduce the press release in its entirety here below:
AmericasNewsToday reported that 16 foreign nationals and corporations have been indicted in Miami on charges of illegally exporting potential military and explosives components to Iran. I reproduce here below the entire article: “A federal grand jury in Miami, Fla., has returned a Superseding Indictment charging eight individuals and eight corporations in connection with their participation in conspiracies to export U.S.-manufactured commodities to prohibited entities and to Iran. The defendants are named in a thirteen (13) count Indictment – returned on Sept. 11, 2008 and unsealed today -- that includes charges of conspiracy, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the United States Iran Embargo, and making false statements to federal agencies in connection with the export of thousands of U.S. goods to Iran. The charges were announced today by R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Patrick Rowan, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, U.S. Department of Justice; Mario Mancuso, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce; Adam Szubin, Director, Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC); Sharon Woods, Director, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS); and Julie L. Myers, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Superseding Indictment alleges that the defendants purchased, and then illegally exported to ultimate buyers in Iran, numerous "dual use" commodities. "Dual-use" commodities are goods and technologies that have commercial application, but could also be used to further the military or nuclear potential of other nations and could be detrimental to the foreign policy or national security of the United States. In this regard, the Superseding Indictment alleges that the defendants caused the export of 120 field-programmable gate arrays, more than 5000 integrated circuits of varying types, approximately 345 Global Positioning Systems ("GPS"), 12,000 Microchip brand micro-controllers, and a Field Communicator. All of these items have potential military applications, including as components in the construction of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The charges announced today are the result of an extensive inter-agency investigation into the use of U.S.-made goods in the construction of IEDs and other explosive devices used against Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Charged in the Superseding Indictment are: Ali Akbar Yahya, an Iranian national and naturalized British citizen; F.N. Yaghmaei, a/k/a " Farrokh Nia Yaghmaei," an Iranian national; Mayrow General Trading, Atlinx Electronics, Micatic General Trading, Madjico Micro Electronics, a/k/a "MME," and Al-Faris, all Dubai-based businesses; Neda Industrial Group, an Iran-based business; Bahman Ghandi, a/k/a "Brian Ghandi," an Iranian national; Farshid Gillardian, a/k/a "Isaac Gillardian," a/k/a "Isaac Gill," an Iranian national and a naturalized British citizen; Kaam Chee Mun, a/k/a "Brian Kaam," a resident of Malaysia; Djamshid Nezhad, a/k/a "Reza," a resident of Germany; Ahmad Rahzad, a/k/a "Saeb Karim," an Iranian national; Majid Seif, a/k/a "Mark Ong,"a/k/a "Matti Chong," an Iranian national residing in Malaysia; and Eco Biochem Sdn BHD and Vast Solution Sdn BHD, Malaysian businesses. The defendants are charged with purchasing and causing the export of U.S. goods to Iran through middle countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, England, Germany, and Singapore. More specifically, the charges in the Indictment are as follows:
Although it was never enforced or put into practice, Florida still has on its books a law banning Asian immigrants from owning land. On November 2008, Florida voters will have an opportunity to remove our State's archaic “alien land law” of 1926. 
According to the U.S. Department of Justice "Cesar Navarrete, Geovanni Navarrete, Villhina Navarrete, Ismael Michael Navarrete and Antonio Zuniga Vargas pleaded guilty to charges relating to a scheme to enslave and Mexican and Guatemalan nationals and compel their labor as farmworkers, the Justice Department announced today. All five defendants pleaded guilty to harboring undocumented foreign nationals for private financial gain and identify theft. In addition, Cesar and Geovanni Navarrete pleaded guilty to beating, threatening, restraining and locking workers in trucks to force them to work for them as agricultural laborers. Cesar Navarrete also pleaded guilty to re-entering the U.S. after being convicted of a felony and deported, and Ismael Navarrete also pleaded guilty to document fraud. ... The defendants were accused of paying the workers minimal wages, driving them into debt, while simultaneously threatening physical harm if the workers left their employment before their debts had been repaid to the family. Previously, co-defendant Jose Navarrete entered a guilty plea for conspiracy to harbor and to harboring undocumented foreign nationals for financial gain as well as possession of false documents, identify theft and re-entry after being deported." USDOJ, Sept. 3, 2008.
The Beacon News online, member of the Sun-Times news group, reported on August 27, 2008, in an article written by 
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida certified as the 
class all migrant and seasonal agricultural workers employed on a "piece-rate" basis at the Florida operations of Ag-Mart Produce Inc. from June 1, 2005, through July 31, 2006. On July 18, the federal district court certified a plaintiff class of Mexican agricultural workers who sued a Florida tomato grower for allegedly paying them less than minimum wage (Mesa v. Ag-Mart Produce Inc., M.D. Fla., No. 2:07-CV-47-FtM-34DNF, class certified 7/18/08). Piece-rate tasks included laying plastic, irrigation, planting, staking, tying, picking, and removing plastic and stakes after harvest, according to the six-page order signed by Judge Marcia Morales Howard. The order adopted the March report and recommendations by a magistrate judge that the class of potentially 3,000 plaintiffs be certified on counts contained in a 2007 civil complaint alleging that the company routinely paid the workers less than the minimum wage mandated by the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Florida Minimum Wage Act. The defendant company, which operates as Santa Sweets Inc. in its grape tomato growing operations in Florida, also allegedly 
violated the recordkeeping, wage statement, and payment provisions of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, according to the lawsuit filed by attorneys for the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project. The lawsuit, with 177 named plaintiffs, also alleges minimum wage violations of the FLSA but does not seek class certification, as that law provides its own statutory framework for collective actions, the magistrate's report noted.
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As summer approaches, Florida employers may want to re-familiarize themselves with applicable child labor laws. There are both federal and state requirements that are nicely summarized in 