The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has issued a final rule amending the legal obligations of an employer when the employer receives a no-match letter from the Social Security Administration or a letter regarding employment verification forms from DHS.

Click here to be redirected out of the PII site to the website of the Social Security Administration for specific information on how to verify your employees' Social Security numbers.

This final rule, in part, also describes "safe harbor" procedures an employer can follow in the event the employer receives either type of letter from the government. Under the new rule, employers would have three months to clarify the discrepancies, which can be due to clerical errors, name changes or stolen identities. Failing to meet that timeline, they would have to fire workers in question or face the possibility of a fine of as much as $11,000 per illegal employee, officials said.

 Also, a proposal was announced to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require all federal contractors to use the Electronic Employment Verification System (formerly known as the Basic Pilot Program) to confirm the work eligibility of all new hires as a condition of contract eligibility. The  provision requires the more than 200,000 companies that enter into federal contracts with the government to use its new electronic verification system, called E-Verify, to confirm a potential employee's legal status.

And what of those companies may be too small to receive Homeland Security's new "no-match" letters. How can they protect themselves? Business Week provides information here.