On June 20, 2025, the United States Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced a new functionality of E-Verify called a Status Change Report. The announcement instructs E-Verify employers to regularly log in to E-Verify to generate Status Change Reports and to immediately begin the reverification process for “each current employee whose EAD the Status Change Report indicated was revoked” within a reasonable amount of time.
As all employers should be aware, federal law makes it unlawful for an employer to continue to employ a foreign national when the employer knows that the foreign national is no longer authorized to work in the United States. A first-time offense for knowingly continuing to employ persons not authorized to work in the United States can be punished with a fine up to $5,724 per unauthorized worker. Employers found to have a pattern or practice of knowingly continuing to employ unauthorized workers are subject to criminal penalties including imprisonment. There are even more severe penalties available for the related crimes of harboring aliens, money laundering, document fraud, and perjury.
The government is not required to show that an employer had actual knowledge that an employee lacked work authorization in order to prove a violation of the prohibition on continuing to employ persons not authorized to work in the United States. Implied or constructive knowledge is sufficient to prove a violation. The E-Verify system now keeps track of when a Status Change Report would have notified an employer that an employee’s EAD has been revoked. Therefore, employers should expect that any failure to regularly check E-Verify for Status Change Reports and take appropriate action can result in them being prosecuted for a violation of the prohibition on continuing to employ workers not authorized to work in the United States.
This new feature of E-Verify, which places a new administrative burden on employers and makes it easier for them to be charged with constructive or implied knowledge that an employee is no longer authorized to work in the United States, provides voluntary users with an opportunity to reevaluate their continued participation in the program.
