Ag Policy
Food Safety Legislation Not Moving Yet - A variety of consumer growers pushing an aggressive food safety agenda are pushing the US Senate to pass S510. However, many groups representing small farms are concerned about the impact of such legislation on their operations. The Tester Amendment would exempt small farms and processing companies with less than $500,000 in sales. However, mainstream produce organizations say that food safety issues can affect farms and companies of all sizes. American Farm Bureau continues to work on improvements to S510 in areas such as indemnification.
New I-9 forms and new process. Do not file Form I-9 with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or USCIS. Form I-9 must be kept by the
employer either for three years after the date of hire or for one year after employment is terminated, whichever is later. The form must be available for inspection by
authorized U.S. Government officials (e.g., ICE, Department of Labor).
Please note the following changes to the Form I-9 process:
Five documents have been removed from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents:
- Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561)
- Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570)
- Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151)
- Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327)
- Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571)
One document was added to List A of the List of Acceptable Documents:
- Unexpired Employment Authorization Document (I-766)
All Employment Authorization Documents with photographs have been consolidated as one item on List A: I-688, I-688A, I-688B, I-766
Instructions regarding Section 1 of the Form I-9 now indicate that the employee is not obliged to provide his or her Social Security number in Section 1 of the Form I-9, unless he or she is employed by an employer who participates in E-Verify. Employers may now sign and retain Forms I-9 electronically. I-9 forms are available at: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf