Harvard hands over employee ID verification info after Trump subpoena
Following the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s subpoena of Harvard University in July — and a notice of inspection that followed — Harvard has handed over most employees’ information submitted through I-9 forms, according to a Tuesday email from the university’s department of human resources.
An I-9 form is used as a means of verifying a person’s identity and ability to work in the U.S., according to the federal government’s website . All employers are required to have I-9 forms for their employees.
“While the government does not ordinarily ask an employer to disclose all of its employees’ Form I-9s and their supporting materials, the government may, in its discretion, issue an all-employees request,” the Harvard human resources department said.
The institution hasn’t given the federal government the I-9 forms of students who are currently or were previously employed by the university in student-only positions, according to the email, which was sent to current and former employees.
The university is still determining whether it can based on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which is the federal student privacy law.
In handing over this information, the university is giving the administration the I-9 document and supporting materials completed by the employee, such as copies of documents — including employee driver’s licenses, social security cards, birth certificates and passports — used to verify someone’s identity.
Harvard has requested that the records be securely maintained and not shared outside of the department, according to the email.
The subpoena comes after reporting that the Trump administration is upping its scrutiny of I-9 forms, as a potential means of cracking down on the hiring of undocumented workers, according to reporting from the Financial Times .
A Harvard spokesperson declined to provide additional comment.
The university had previously provided I-9 forms for a few dozen employees in Massachusetts Hall at Harvard, in response to a notice of inspection. The hall is where President Alan Garber’s office is.
However, a further subpoena clarified that the federal government was looking for information on all current university employees and any person employed by the institution in the past 12 months, the institution said.
The subpoena is separate from three other subpoenas issued by DHS over its failure to provide documents concerning the misconduct or criminal actions of foreign students .
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