Article

USCIS Expands Enforcement Powers: What Employers Must Know

ICE Audits

Form I-9

Jed Butler

Published on:

September 4, 2025

minutes to read

In January 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finalized a rule granting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) new law enforcement authority. For the first time, USCIS officers — classified as 1811 special agents — are authorized to investigate, arrest, and present for prosecution individuals and organizations that violate U.S. immigration laws.

For employers, this shift means I-9 compliance and document verification are no longer just paperwork risks. The same agency that approves work authorizations can now directly enforce against I-9 fraud, errors, or negligence. And through 2025 and into 2026, the enforcement landscape has expanded further: ICE reclassified several common I-9 errors as substantive violations in March 2026, and state governments have built their own enforcement apparatus in parallel — deputizing state police, creating new state-level agencies, and passing employer-facing immigration laws.

Why This Rule Change Matters to Employers

Direct investigations by USCIS. Instead of referring suspicious cases to ICE Homeland Security Investigations, USCIS can now launch and complete investigations in-house.
Faster escalation. Cases of fraudulent or mishandled I-9 documentation can move more quickly from detection to enforcement.
Civil and criminal exposure. Employers may now face penalties not only for knowingly hiring unauthorized workers but also for document errors that suggest negligence.
Higher audit volume. With added staff and authority, USCIS has greater capacity to expand audit frequency, especially in high-turnover industries like retail, agriculture, hospitality, and construction. Track recent activity in our ICE Worksite Enforcement Tracker.

What Employers Should Expect

More frequent I-9 inspections. Employers should anticipate a rise in Notices of Inspection (NOIs) and requests for records directly from USCIS.
Focus on fraud and document abuse. Expect heightened scrutiny of document fraud, reverification lapses, and discriminatory practices tied to over-documentation.
Overlap with ICE investigations. While ICE will continue to target large-scale cases and transnational crime, USCIS is now empowered to take on routine employer-level enforcement.
A narrower definition of "technical" errors. As of March 16, 2026, ICE reclassified missing dates, missing date of birth, Spanish-language I-9 use outside Puerto Rico, and several other common mistakes as substantive violations with no 10-day correction window. Every one of those now carries immediate fine exposure of $288 to $2,861 per form.

Top I-9 Risks Under the New Enforcement Powers

Accepting expired or fraudulent documents.
Failing to reverify employees with temporary work authorizations.
Inconsistent policies for copying and storing employee documentation.
Over-documenting employees, which can lead to discrimination liability.
Missing deadlines for Section 1, Section 2, or Supplement B compliance.

Get Ahead of an Audit Before It Finds You

A proactive internal review is the cheapest hour of compliance work you'll ever do. Use our I-9 Risk Calculator to estimate your current exposure, or book a free compliance call with our team.

The State Enforcement Wave: Why Federal Is Only Half the Story

The USCIS expansion is the most visible federal shift, but it is not the only enforcement change employers now face. In parallel with the 2025 federal rule, states have been standing up their own immigration enforcement systems — creating new state agencies, deputizing state police under ICE's 287(g) program, and passing employer-facing penalty statutes that run independently of federal I-9 law.

The 287(g) program, authorized under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, allows ICE to delegate immigration enforcement authority to state and local law enforcement officers who have been trained and certified by ICE. There are three operational models: the Jail Enforcement Model, the Warrant Service Officer program, and the Task Force Model — which was reinstated under a January 20, 2025 executive order and allows deputized officers to identify and arrest suspected removable aliens during routine police duties.

As of April 17, 2026, ICE has signed 1,697 active 287(g) agreements covering 39 states and two U.S. territories — the majority of them signed in 2025 alone, according to ICE. That expansion has changed what the enforcement footprint looks like on the ground, and it has direct implications for employers whose worksites and employees now sit inside the reach of newly deputized state officers.

Florida: The State With the Most Deputized Officers in the Nation

Florida has moved the fastest and the furthest. On February 13, 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 2-C, which created the State Board of Immigration Enforcement within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). The bill appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars for state immigration enforcement, established a local law enforcement immigration grant program, and directed state agencies to enter into 287(g) agreements with ICE.

Three Florida agencies entered those agreements: the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Florida State Guard. In July 2025, FDLE members became officially 287(g)-certified Task Force Officers — authorized to interrogate people suspected of being unlawfully present, arrest people attempting unlawful entry, and deliver detainees to ICE for removal proceedings. Florida currently leads every other state in the nation by number of 287(g) agreements and deputized state officers.

The practical result was Operation Tidal Wave, launched April 21-26, 2025 as a multi-agency sweep that produced 1,120 arrests in its first week — the largest single-state immigration enforcement operation in ICE history at the time. By January 2026, the Governor's office reported that Operation Tidal Wave had produced more than 10,000 arrests across eight months. Participating agencies included FDLE, Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife, Florida Department of Agricultural Law Enforcement, and the Florida State Guard, operating alongside ICE and Border Patrol.

Indiana: The FAIRNESS Act Creates State-Level Employer Penalties

Indiana took a different path — one focused directly at employers. On March 5, 2026, Governor Mike Braun signed Senate Enrolled Act 76, known as the FAIRNESS Act, creating the first state-level civil penalties in Indiana history for employers who knowingly hire, recruit, or continue to employ workers not authorized to work in the United States. The law takes effect July 1, 2026.

Under the FAIRNESS Act:

Every Indiana employer is covered. No size threshold, no industry carve-outs, no public-versus-private distinction.
Civil fines reach up to $10,000 per violation, plus court-ordered temporary or permanent revocation of a business's authority to operate in Indiana for repeat offenses.
Attorney General Todd Rokita is the sole enforcement authority, with power to issue civil investigative demands, conduct worksite inspections, and bring civil actions in Indiana court. Rokita has publicly stated that construction is the first enforcement priority.
E-Verify creates a rebuttable presumption safe harbor. Employers who run E-Verify on every new hire and receive a work-authorized result have a documented defense against a knowing-hire allegation.

For employers operating in Indiana — including out-of-state companies with Indiana-based workers — the FAIRNESS Act changes the compliance calculus. Federal I-9 compliance alone does not satisfy the statute. For the complete breakdown, see our full guide to the Indiana FAIRNESS Act and our 30-day compliance checklist for action steps.

Texas: DPS Joins 287(g), Large-County Sheriffs Required by Law

In October and November 2025, the Texas Department of Public Safety signed two 287(g) agreements with ICE, bringing the DPS Highway Patrol and Criminal Investigations divisions into the Task Force Model. Troopers in those divisions can now question and arrest individuals they believe are unlawfully present during routine traffic stops and investigations.

DPS is the third Texas state agency to sign a 287(g) agreement under the current administration, joining the Texas Attorney General's office and the Texas National Guard. State law also requires sheriffs' offices in any Texas county with more than 100,000 residents to sign a 287(g) agreement by December 2026. As of late 2025, more than 158 law enforcement agencies in Texas had 287(g) agreements in place.

Ohio: Construction-Specific E-Verify Mandate

Ohio took yet another approach — an industry-specific employer mandate. Effective March 19, 2026, Ohio House Bill 246 (the E-Verify Workforce Integrity Act) requires all nonresidential construction contractors, subcontractors, and labor brokers operating in Ohio to use E-Verify for every new hire. Fines reach $25,000 per violation, with permanent license revocation available for knowing violations. See our full guide to the Ohio E-Verify construction mandate.

What the State Wave Means for Employers

Federal I-9 law has always applied to every U.S. employer. What has changed since 2025 is the addition of a second, parallel enforcement layer operating inside individual states. That layer has different rules, different penalty structures, and different enforcement agencies than the federal system — and employers who operate across state lines are now subject to both.

Three operational realities follow from that:

Dual exposure. A single knowing-hire violation can trigger federal penalties under the Immigration and Nationality Act and separate state penalties under statutes like the FAIRNESS Act. The two do not offset each other.
Deputized state officers at worksites. Federal ICE has limited personnel, but under 287(g) expansion, state troopers, sheriffs' deputies, and state agency officers are now authorized to question and detain workers they believe are unlawfully present — at traffic stops, job sites, and during routine police activity. Employers whose workforces operate in public (construction, agriculture, delivery, field services) are more exposed to this layer than employers whose work happens indoors.
E-Verify as the common compliance path. Across nearly every state that has created employer-facing penalties — Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah — E-Verify functions as either a requirement or the statutory safe harbor. For multi-state employers, running E-Verify on every new hire is the simplest way to maintain one compliant process across all jurisdictions. For the current state-by-state breakdown, see E-Verify Requirements by State.

How Employers Can Prepare Now

Conduct an internal audit. Review existing I-9s to catch expired or incomplete forms before enforcement agencies do.
Standardize training. Train managers on what documents are acceptable, how to spot obvious errors, and when reverification is required.
Use digital compliance tools. Use I-9 management software with built-in error detection, audit trails, and reverification alerts.
Enroll in E-Verify. Most states with employer-facing penalties treat E-Verify as the safe harbor. For multi-state employers, E-Verify on every new hire is the simplest path to one consistent process.
Create an audit response plan. Designate who will respond to federal and state government inquiries, where records are stored, and who has authority to produce documents in response to a civil investigative demand.

USCIS Enforcement Is a Wake-Up Call

This rule marks a turning point in U.S. immigration enforcement. By empowering USCIS agents with law enforcement authority — and by pairing that federal expansion with a parallel wave of state-level enforcement — DHS and state governments have doubled down on protecting the integrity of work authorization.

For HR leaders and compliance teams, the message is clear: I-9 compliance can no longer be treated as a box-checking exercise. With federal civil fines of $288 to $2,861 per paperwork violation and up to $28,619 per unauthorized hire — and state penalties stacking on top — employers must act now to tighten their I-9 strategy. For a complete federal penalty breakdown, see our 2026 I-9 penalties guide.

At i9 Intelligence, we help employers stay audit-ready with digital tools, training, and proactive compliance strategies. Try our I-9 Risk Calculator or schedule a free I-9 compliance review with our team today.