DHS Issues Reverification Guidance After Revoking EADs

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is directing employers to use E-Verify to identify workers whose employment authorization has been revoked.  

DHS said on June 20 that it will no longer issue case alerts through E-Verify and that employers should instead begin regularly generating status change reports to identify cases created with an employment authorization document (EAD) that has been revoked. Employers who don’t use E-Verify will need to check by different means to determine whether their employees’ authorization status has been affected. 

The announcement follows the Trump administration’s termination of the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) humanitarian parole program on June 12. Notices were sent to 530,000 affected people terminating their status and revoking any EADs that were granted. The CHNV program was started by the Biden administration in 2023.  

Employers are required to reverify any affected workers using Form I-9, Supplement B. 

“The decision to immediately, and without warning, terminate the CHNV parole program creates urgent compliance and workforce implications for employers,” said Chris Thomas, an attorney in the Denver office of Holland & Hart. 

E-Verify employers must log in to their accounts, access the latest reports, and “immediately begin reverifying each current employee whose EAD was revoked … within a reasonable amount of time,” he said.  

Toolkit: Complying with I-9 and E-Verify Requirements

Hundreds of thousands of people may now be deemed unauthorized to work, said Dawn Lurie, senior counsel for immigration in the Washington, D.C., office of Seyfarth. “Many employers hired these individuals in good faith, and now the responsibility to address this shift falls squarely on employers, particularly those enrolled in E-Verify,” she said. 

Lurie added that the DHS guidance lacks specificity, and the method provided is limited. “To limit PII [personally identifiable information] issues, the report currently lists only E-Verify case numbers and A numbers, crucially omitting employee names,” she said. “This forces employers to manually reconcile these numbers with internal HR records, a time-consuming and error-prone process. Employers are also expected to regularly generate this report.” 

She said that the guidance will create uncertainty for employers, especially those managing large or multisite workforces.  

“Employers should carefully consider the appropriate time frame for action, balancing both risk tolerance and operational impact with competent legal counsel,” she said. 

Reverifying Employees

Thomas said that affected workers must provide unexpired documentation from List A or List C of the Lists of Acceptable Documents. List B identity documents should not be reverified. “During this process, you must allow employees to choose which acceptable documentation to present for reverification,” he said. “You may not accept the now-revoked EAD, even if that EAD appears unexpired. You cannot continue employing a person who does not provide proof of current employment authorization.” 

Related Article: USCIS Releases New Form I-9

Thomas pointed out that most employers are not enrolled in E-Verify. But in “this enforcement-heavy environment, employers would be prudent to take affirmative steps to prepare for the reality of losing these workers,” he said.  

He listed the following steps that employers should take: 

• Check employment records and determine which employees may have lost their employment authorization.  
• Meet with each affected employee once identified, ask whether they have received a revocation notice from the government, and if so, ask whether they have alternative evidence of employment authorization.   
• Update I-9 forms by completing Supplement B with a different form of employment authorization.  
• Give notice to affected employees whose status has been revoked and who do not have alternative forms of employment authorization that their employment with the company will need to be terminated. 

Lurie noted that litigation related to the CHNV program is ongoing, but employers should still act proactively in the event of an I-9 audit.  

“Given the continued lack of clarity around key aspects of the process, employers should coordinate closely with internal stakeholders and legal counsel to set expectations, define timelines, and assign responsibilities, both for E-Verify and non-E-Verify settings,” she said. 

“This compliance burden comes amid ongoing labor shortages in key sectors such as hospitality, construction, agriculture, logistics, and health care — industries where CHNV parolees are heavily represented,” Lurie said. “The sudden loss of a previously authorized workforce, combined with increased I-9 audits and enforcement, poses a serious threat to business continuity.” 

SHRM recently wrote to DHS, asking the department to issue “clear, consistent, and compliance-oriented guidance on Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification obligations” in the wake of the termination of parole programs and employment authorization for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans in the CHNV program, as well as the April 7 termination of the 2023 Temporary Protected Status designation for Venezuela.