A federal policy summit in Lexington last Friday discussed how efforts to enforce deportations are taking a toll on businesses.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday the Trump administration can revoke the legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Chelsea Granville Reed is a lawyer at Dentons focused on employment litigation. She said at the summit around half of her recent workload has focused on how businesses respond to investigative demands about their workforce.
“What we've been doing in response to that is really working with clients to implement training and revising procedures and policies that they can sort of take with them, and you know, feel much more prepared in responding to those investigations.” she said.
More than 4,500 legal refugees were accepted into Kentucky last year.
Lisa Crutcher is the CEO of Catholic Charities of Louisville, which houses Kentucky’s refugee resettlement office. She says the legal status of many immigrant groups has been in flux as courts debate the legality of some executive orders.
“Folks who may have been legally authorized to work at the time they were hired, that status may change, frankly, without anyone being aware of it,” Crutcher said. “And so that's just something I think employers need to be aware of, if there's a significant population of immigrants within their workforce.”
No refugees have been accepted into the state since an executive order halting admissions in January, and 92 people had their resettlement process halted because of the order.
