Loren Locke quoted about effect of CHNV parole termination on Walmart

The legal situation is complex and extremely high-risk for large employers, according to Loren Locke, an immigration attorney in Georgia. 

'Employers like Walmart have no choice but to stop employing workers who lack US work authorization,' she told DailyMail.com. 

'But it is tricky to comply when they have a large number of current employees whose work permits are getting cancelled prematurely.' 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not directly notified employers about which workers are losing their status.

Instead, a March federal filing by Trump officials said employers carried 'constructive knowledge' if they continued to employ the migrants using the Biden-era program. 

According to Locke, that shifted legal responsibility on employers like Walmart. The companies can be held legally accountable for keeping workers on staff that relied on the visa program.

But corporate I-9 management systems are often not designed to flag sudden early terminations. The Trump administration's decision to cancel the program doesn't allow companies to easily search which CHNV visas are now cancelled.   

Complicating matters further, the Biden-era permit falls under the same immigration employment category as other immigration work programs.

These problems make it nearly impossible for most employers to separate CHNV applicants from staffers on still-in-place visa programs.  

For many retailers, the paperwork issue has created a thorny situation that could put them in trouble with the Trump administration if they keep employees. 

But if they do comply with the Trump administration's orders, asking employees about their visa status could also leave companies susceptible to discrimination lawsuits. 

Locke called the sudden shift an 'immediate compliance crisis for retailers.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14799717/walmart-job-cuts-staff-panic-trump-immigration-orders.html