You’d have to be living under a rock to not be aware that if you have workers in your company who have entered the United States illegally, you are likely to receive a visit from members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to question and possibly detain those workers.
Most of the asphalt professionals I know have the good sense to follow the law and ensure workers have proper documentation and work visas before putting those workers on payroll. Business owners have much to protect, including the workers to whom they offer wages, benefits and care. In the next few months, some workers who have employment authorization documents (EADs) may see those documents expire as temporary protected status (TPS) from Lebanon, Sudan, Venezuela and other countries expires.
Without offering advice, let’s take a high-level view of this complex topic.
First, ask yourself if you have a lawyer who is well-versed in immigration law. Immigration Attorney Deirdre Nero spoke to a group of South Florida American General Contractors (AGC) in first quarter 2025 to share some basic guidelines for navigating a visit from ICE and offered plain, simple language for a front-facing person to use. Whether that front-facing person is a receptionist at headquarters or a foreman on a job site, he or she should be able to respond to visiting immigration officers with: “Our company policy is to call our lawyer, and I’m doing that now.”
Another high-level action to protect a company and all of its workers is to conduct an internal audit. You might ask the HR department if I-9 forms are current and complete. You might ensure employees have been confirmed through e-verify. You might go through the log and double-check EAD dates. Nero shared that over 600,000 Venezuelan citizens have TPS in the United States—a “batch” of those who were cleared in 2021 will lose their status in September 2025 while another “batch” who were cleared in 2023 will lose their status April 7, 2025. Personally, I wouldn’t rely on extensions and promises made by a former administration, but I would log onto government websites and communicate with my knowledgeable lawyer to ensure the protection of all my workers.
One site worth monitoring is this one.
Another is here.
With employment documents in order, you have better peace of mind when officials come to your business with a warrant. Depending on the type of warrant—judicial or administrative—the ICE agents will have access to different areas of your work site or facility. You will want to have your lawyer define these differences for your team, so you don’t inadvertently block an officer from doing his or her job. Basically, as Nero explained, if agents present a judicial warrant, you must unlock facilities for them. You must cooperate with an ICE visit as you would an OSHA or MSHA visit.
Think of it this way. When an OSHA investigator comes to your site to conduct an investigation, you have the front-facing person interact with basic, simple language, offering zero small talk. The safety director—assigned competent person—meets with the OSHA investigator to walk him or her to the area of concern. The investigation is conducted and concluded in a professional manner. If the investigator must interview employees, those employees are made aware of their rights and interviews are conducted in a specific, legal manner.
You can apply this commonsense professionalism to your ICE visit to calm workers’ fears and prevent escalation into confrontation. The fact of the matter is we, as an industry, are responsible for the safety and care of all our workers. By following the law of the land, we can help those who have protected status as well as those who are filing for citizenship as well as those who are U.S. citizens. All employees can be safeguarded when an employer seeks the advice of an attorney who is well-versed in immigration law and how to navigate upcoming TPS expirations.
Stay Safe,
Sandy Lender