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June 30, 2025
Effective July 1, 2025, Montana employers are required by state law to verify that all new hires are authorized to work in the United States. The law seeks to promote fair competition, discourage illegal employment practices, and align state regulations with federal immigration and labor laws.
Specifically, Montana enacted the Legal Employment and Government Accountability Law (House Bill 226), which requires employers to use the federal E-Verify system,[1] or to complete and maintain the Form I-9[2] with supporting documentation, to verify the legal work status of all employees before they begin work.
The Montana Department of Labor and Industry (DOL) will enforce the law and may impose penalties for violations. For a first violation, the DOL may impose up to a $500 fine per unauthorized employee. For a second violation, the DOL may impose up to a $1,000 fine per unauthorized employee. For third and subsequent violations, the DOL may suspend employer licenses (for 30 to 180 days) and fines up to $2,500 per unauthorized employee.
Montana employers: Update your hiring practices and procedures and train your hiring personnel to ensure compliance with the new law.
The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, Montana, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
[1] E-Verify, authorized by Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, is a web-based system through which employers electronically confirm the employment eligibility of their employees.
[2] On the Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification), an employee must attest to their employment authorization and must present their employer with acceptable documents as evidence of identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine these documents to determine whether they reasonably appear to be genuine and relate to the employee, then record the document information on the Form.
