Webinar/Podcast
Immigration in Focus: What Restaurants Need to Know About Compliance & Response
60 Min Watch
Immigration enforcement remains a heightened and evolving issue for restaurant operators. With one of the most diverse workforces in the country, restaurants must stay attentive to I‑9 requirements, Notices of Inspection, and other potential enforcement actions—while also monitoring new legal and policy developments that could impact their teams.
Join the National Restaurant Association and the Restaurant Law Center for a practical discussion led by Littler attorneys, Bruce Buchanan and Deepti Orekondy. This session will examine current compliance considerations - ICE’s new guidance on what are I-9 substantive errors, ICE Enforcement Actions, including Notice of Inspection, Search and Seizure Warrants (raids), and Administrative Warrants, and how restaurant management should respond to the enforcement actions.
The conversation will also address the recent Supreme Court’s ruling on Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and what it may mean for restaurants. For restaurants, TPS-related changes could impact workforce stability and create operational uncertainty, making it critical for operators to understand what to watch in the months ahead.
Designed for restaurant owners, operators, and HR professionals, this webinar offers timely insights and operational considerations relevant to today’s enforcement and policy environment.
Register and Watch Recorded Webinar Here
Participants will explore:
- Defining ICE’s new guidance on Substantive Errors: Overview of the new substantive errors and what does it mean for restaurants.
- Understanding the enforcement landscape: Overview of common immigration enforcement scenarios affecting restaurants, including ICE I‑9 audits, raids, and administrative warrants , as well as employer obligations and potential risks.
- Monitoring policy developments impacting the workforce: Insights into the Supreme Court’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) ruling, why it matters for restaurant employers, and what to watch as DHS and USCIS determine implementation timelines, and employment authorization considerations.
- Preparing your restaurant for potential enforcement: Practical steps to support readiness, including proactive I‑9 internal compliance audits, developing an internal Plan of Action , identifying trained points of contact, and understanding next steps when an ICE action Enforcement is received.
- Responding during an enforcement action: Key considerations if ICE visits a restaurant, including verifying documentation, understanding employer rights, and minimizing operational disruption while remaining compliant.
**Please note: After this webinar takes place, it will be available for on demand viewing. Please register even if you cannot attend the live presentation. You will receive a link to the on demand presentation where you can watch at your leisure.
About the Presenters:
Bruce Buchanan
Senior Counsel, Littler
Bruce E. Buchanan counsels employers on immigration compliance issues, conducts internal I-9 audits, represents employers in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inspections and audits, Immigrant and Employee Rights (IER)/Department of Justice investigations, E-Verify issues, and employment-based visas. Also, Bruce practices labor law where he represents employers before National Labor Relations Board and U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division and in collective bargaining. Before focusing on immigration, Bruce served as senior trial specialist for the NLRB for 20 years, counseled clients on union-filed representation petitions, represented employers in collective bargaining, and advised on wage and hour and Family and Medical Leave Act matters.
In addition to his legal practice, Bruce regularly writes and speaks on immigration compliance and labor law issues for employers and served as Adjunct Professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law for 10+ years. Among his many publications, Bruce co-authored the book, I-9 and E-Verify Handbook, 2017 and 2024 editions, and was an editor of the Employer Sanctions of Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook, 2024 edition. He was a longtime member of the Verification and Documentation Liaison Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Deepti Orekondy
Special Counsel, Littler
Deepti Orekondy's practice primarily focuses on working with foreign individuals and multinational organizations in the area of business and family-based immigration law. She has a broad base of experience advising clients in pursuit of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. Her experience includes representing individuals and multinational organizations in filings with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of State (DOS), and Department of Labor (DOL).
Deepti previously worked as an immigration associate at a boutique law firm in Miami, where she practiced business and family-based immigration law. She also worked in Atlanta for an AmLaw 100 law firm.
Deepti served as the senior writing editor of the University of Miami Business Law Review. While in law school, she interned with Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the Department of Homeland Security and subsequently worked as a student attorney with the University of Miami Immigration Clinic, where she represented clients before USCIS and the Immigration Court.
Robin Repass
Executive Director, SVP, and Chief Legal Counsel,
Restaurant Law Center
