Immigration Enforcement » employer checks

Rhode Island illegal immigration order overdue

blogadmin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:57:34 +0000

Terry Gorman [Executive Director, Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement]: “At a press conference on March 27,2008, Rhode Island Governor Carcieri issued an Executive Order to control rapidly escalating cost of illegal immigration in Rhode Island.

The Order requires the Executive Branch to register and use E-verify for all new hires, check the validity of Social Security numbers that are submitted and report anyone not legally present in the US. The Department of Administration shall require that all persons and businesses doing business with our state to register and use the E-verify program in order to acquire state contracts. It also requires the Rhode Island State Police, the Department of Corrections and the Parole Board to secure respective Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to train and work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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E-Verify: Know the Truth

blogadmin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:57:36 +0000

From BobGriggs.com

Posted on March 27th, 2008 by BobG

A couple of days ago, the AJC published an article (linked below) documenting the standard criticisms of the E-Verify program (formerly known as Basic Pilot), which is the federal database system that can be queried by employers to determine whether or not their new hires are eligible to work in the United States. More and more states, counties and cities are enacting laws requiring employers to verify as a prerequisite to receiving or renewing a business license, or to receive public service contracts.Currently, almost 60,000 businesses nationwide use the system with over a thousand signing up each week.

The author exhibits the anti-immigration enforcement bias often seen in articles about E-Verify. As the owner of a company that is an approved Designated Agent of the E-Verify program and someone who is very familiar with how the E-Verify system works (I use it every day), I could have easily taken the same facts expressed in this article and written a glowing report of E-Verify’s unqualified success.

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3,000 Ga. employers use system to deter illegal workers

blogadmin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:47:04 +0000

By MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/19/08

Mike Turner wants to make sure his company doesn’t hire people who can’t legally work in the United States.

The human resources manager for Terminix in the Southeast joined a group of about 20 employers and lawyers Tuesday at the downtown Westin Peachtree Plaza for a free seminar on the government’s E-Verify system.

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Miss. governor signs bill requiring checks on immigrants’ status

blogadmin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:29:10 +0000

The Associated Press

JACKSON – Mississippi’s Republican governor campaigned last year on minimizing government regulation of business, but he signed bill Monday that he said will require employers to use an unproven federal system to check immigrants’ status.

Haley Barbour said he has “serious concerns about specific provisions of the bill that could have unintended negative consequences.”

The bill becomes law Jan. 1. It will require employers to use the U.S. Homeland Security electronic verification system to check whether new hires are legal residents. Employers who hire illegal immigrants could lose their business license for a year and any state contract work for up to three years.

Any illegal immigrant found working in the state could face a one-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $10,000.

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Law targeting illegals prompts 8 complaints in Mohave County Arizona

blogadmin — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:55:34 +0000

Aaron Royster
Miner Staff Writer

The Mohave County Attorney’s Office is investigating eight possible violations of the Legal Arizona Workers Act.

The Office began accepting citizen complaint forms when the Act, sometimes called the “Employer Sanctions Law,” became effective on Jan. 1.

The complaint forms are available at the County Attorney’s Office in Kingman, 315 N. Fourth St., and on the County Attorney’s Office Web site, www.co.mohave.az.us.

Completion of the forms start the investigation of an employer suspected of knowingly employing an unauthorized alien. An unauthorized alien is any person who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and who is not authorized to work in the United States under federal law.

Of the eight businesses being investigated, one is in Kingman, one is in Mohave Valley and six are in Lake Havasu City, Chief Deputy County Attorney Jace Zack said.

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Try E-Verify, Avoid the Fine for Hiring Illegal Aliens

blogadmin — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:18:43 +0000

By Jennifer G. Parser, Ward and Smith, P.A.

Posted: Today at 6:05 a.m.

Editor’s Note: Jennifer Parser is a member of the Labor and Employment Section and Immigration Practice Group of Ward and Smith, P.A.

With today’s complex immigration laws, all employers must be careful to avoid hiring illegal aliens. Employers no longer can rely on an alien’s presentation of an apparently authentic work authorization document. Employers now must make good faith efforts to verify the document and the alien’s social security number.

On January 1, 2008, the federal government’s new E Verify system became operational. This system is an internet-based application, operated jointly by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) and the Social Security Administration (“SSA”), and intended to provide employers with an easy way to verify both employment eligibility of newly hired employees and the legality of each employee’s social security number.

What Does E-Verify Actually Do?

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Arizona E-Verify sign-ups top 18,000

blogadmin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:40:44 +0000

From OneOldVet:

Construction, hospitality, high-tech firms have the highest number of registrations

As the number of Arizona employers enrolled in E-Verify grows, a picture has emerged of the industries taking part the most in the federal worker-verification program.

Industries involved with construction, high-tech and hospitality are among those with the highest number of employers signed up for E-Verify. They also tend to be the industries with the most firms and employees, according to an Arizona Republic analysis.

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Look for the E-Verify Logo before buying

blogadmin — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:33:40 +0000

From DallasNews :

Comprehensive immigration reform is paralyzed in Washington, and the government’s premier workplace enforcement program is stalled in the courts. Local governments are filling the vacuum of leadership on illegal immigration, while employers enjoy a virtual holiday from mandatory checks on their workers’ immigration status.

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E-Verify (formerly Basic Pilot Program) Fact Sheet

blogadmin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:32:43 +0000

ABOUT E-VERIFY:

• E-Verify is a free and simple to use Web-based system that electronically verifies the employment eligibility of newly hired employees. For more information on E-Verify, visit www.dhs.gov/E-Verify.

• E-Verify is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) oversees the program.

• E-Verify is a re-branding of its predecessor, the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program, which has been in existence since 1997. The Basic Pilot is being re-branded to highlight key enhancements in the program, including a new photo screening tool that helps employers to detect forged or faked immigration documents.

• E-Verify works by allowing participating employers to electronically compare employee information taken from the Form I-9 (the paper based employee eligibility verification form used for all new hires) against more than 425 million records in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) database and more than 60 million records in DHS immigration databases. Results are returned within seconds.

• E-Verify is the only official U.S. government source that provides employers in the United States with real-time data that takes the subjectivity out of verifying employment eligibility.

• The primary goals of the EEV program are to protect jobs, not lose jobs, for authorized U.S. workers and to ensure a legal workforce in the United States.

• Currently, more than 19,000 employers are enrolled in E-Verify and 1000 new employers are signing up each month. The system is currently capable of handling up to 25 million inquiries a year.

• Through E-Verify, participating employers have successfully matched 92 percent of new hires to DHS and SSA database information. Of the remaining 8 percent that were not matched, less than one percent of those employees contested the result.

E-VERIFY ENHANCEMENTS:
PHOTO TOOL

• E-Verify’s new photo screening tool—to be launched by August 31, 2007— will be the beginning of biometric verification within the E-Verify system. This additional feature will be the first step in giving employers the tools they need to detect identify theft in the employment eligibility process.

• The photo tool screening feature will work by allowing an employer to check the photo on their new hire’s Employment Authorization Document (EAD) or Permanent Resident Card (green card) against the 14.8 million images stored in DHS immigration databases.

• The employer will be able to compare identical photos—one from the card presented to the employee to the card image in the USCIS database. The photo screening tool is designed to detect when a photo is superimposed on an authentic immigration identification card or when the document is counterfeit but contains valid information with a different photo.

• The photo screening tool feature was piloted with a subset of E-Verify employers beginning in March 2007 and is scheduled to become a feature for all new and existing users of E-Verify by August 31, 2007.

OTHER ENHANCEMENTS:

• The photo screening feature is the answer to detecting some, but not all, forms of identity theft used in the employment eligibility verification process. E-Verify is constantly enhancing and improving its access to real time data by including more DHS databases in its system with the primary goal of driving down the mismatch rate.

• Other key enhancements coming in the future include an option for employers to generate letters for their employees in Spanish and other languages, an E-Verify website that will have a mini-tutorial for employers considering enrolling, web-based resources for employees on their rights and responsibilities, and a marketing and advertising campaign to educate employers on the benefits of E-Verify.

Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Fact Sheet; August 9, 2007

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Local employers say E-Verify system works

blogadmin — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:07:46 +0000

From OneOldVet:

Local employers say E-Verify system works

When checking workers for immigration status

Andrea Zelinski

Derek Denoyer knows every employee working for People Link in Kankakee County is a U.S. citizen.

That’s because before being hired, every job applicant at the temporary staffing agency has had his or her immigration status checked by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, said Denoyer, vice president of People Link.

Denoyer and other employers can continue to use the system, despite an Illinois law that was to take effect Jan. 1 barring employers from relying on E-Verify because Social Security information was not reliable.

The law, signed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in August, was one of the country’s most far reaching in its challenge of the federal government’s use of Social Security records to verify immigration status.

In September, the federal government sued the state to block the law. In mid-December, the suit was paused thanks to a deal worked out between federal officials and the Illinois attorney general’s office.

The federal government currently encourages employers to send its applicants’ information through E-Verify, which verifies candidates’ legal status in three days in 92 percent of cases.

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