On August 5, 2026, Governor Maura Healey signed the PROTECT Act, An Act Promoting Rule of Law, Oversight, Trust and Equal Constitutional Treatment, St. 2026, c. 163. The Act took effect immediately. Among other immigration related measures, the Act imposes a new notice requirement on Massachusetts employers.
Under § 8 of the Act, an employer that receives a Notice of Inspection (NOI) from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeking I-9 employment eligibility verification forms or other employment records must provide written notice of the upcoming inspection to each employee within 48 hours of receiving the NOI, except as otherwise required by federal law.
The Act does not prescribe specific notice language or a particular method of delivery. However, on September 8, 2026, Governor Healy, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the Office for Refugees and Immigrants, and the Office of the Attorney General issued guidance for employers regarding the new notice requirement. The guidance states that employers are expected to provide individual written notice to each employee, and workplace posting is not sufficient. In addition, notice should be provided in the employee’s primary language.
The guidance for employers currently provides a sample notice in English that employers can use or modify to inform their employees of an upcoming ICE I-9 inspection. Additional sample notices in other commonly spoken languages in Massachusetts are expected to become available.
Given the short 48-hour compliance window, employers should consider taking the following steps now to ensure they are prepared if they receive an NOI: designate personnel to receive and immediately escalate ICE correspondence; document the date and time an NOI is received; prepare employee notification templates in advance; establish a process for distributing notices and documenting compliance; and incorporate the new Massachusetts notice requirement into existing federal I-9 audit and inspection protocols.
Employment, I-9 Forms, Compliance