Being essential doesn't make your practice exempt from immigration compliance

Some medical practices assume that because healthcare is critical, they're somehow insulated from the same immigration compliance standards that apply to every other industry. They're not.

Katie Russell, a partner at Brown Immigration Law, says that misconception is one of the biggest gaps she sees. From expired employment authorizations that go unnoticed for months to confusion about when staff are required to grant ICE access, the issues tend to come down to a lack of preparation. Russell's fix is simple: get an attorney in front of your team, even if it's just for an hour over bagels, and make sure everyone knows the plan before they ever need one.

Physicians Practice: What are practices really misunderstanding about their obligations? What's the big disconnect there?

Katie Russell: Well, I would say one big common misunderstanding is just kind of thinking that healthcare, because it's so critical, because it's so essential, is in some way insulated from being held to account with some of these compliance standards. And that's not the case. I always tell folks, healthcare employers are subject to the same employer compliance standards as any other industry, so just making sure that you have all of your documentation done with the compliance, whether it's I-9 documentation or petition terms, or just making sure that you're keeping an eye on the expiration dates coming up on someone's visa. Is a renewal due? Should the practice be requiring someone to provide a new document? Or if they go, "Oops, I just noticed that your employment authorization expired six months ago, how do we go about fixing that?" So it really is about preparation.

I think some other concerns that I've had with worksites and practices are, when do we let ICE in? When do we have to turn things over to them? That's another reason that it's really important to have an attorney come in, even just to have a quick hour-long meeting. We've got a PowerPoint presentation that we share with folks all the time. "Hey guys, we'll get some bagels, sit through this. Hopefully this is something that never comes up, but preparation is everything." Making sure that you know when, "Hey, all right, we can handle this," or, "We're going to have to pick up the phone. We want to make sure that we get our counsel on this and make sure that we're covered there."