Posted by Liz Greene
Just one week after the Department of Homeland Security sent letters notifying over 650 companies of pending audits of their employment records, Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday that the E-Verify rule for Federal contractors will take effect September 8, 2009, despite repeated delays and public speculation about the survival of the rule. [See our previous posts on E-Verify issues.]
The E-Verify initiative, along with the pending audits, is part of a larger immigration enforcement initiative intended to put more onus on hiring organizations to maintain a legal workforce. Meanwhile, the 2007 No-Match Rule, which has never taken effect and has remained locked up in court, is expected to be rescinded. While No-Match represented a paper process, where employers would receive a letter of a questionable SSN as late as a year from the date of hire, the free online E-Verify system is virtually instant, providing rapid verification of legal work status for new hires.
Although E-Verify will initially only apply to Federal government contractors and subcontractors, and remains purely voluntary for other employers, we might expect that in the long run, as E-Verify becomes the favored method of electronic I-9 verification and undergoes continuous improvement, that it will eventually be required for all employers. Several states already require E-Verify, so check your jurisdiction to be sure you are in compliance.
E-Verify is certainly a work in progress, and Secretary Napolitano described both the recent improvements to the system and coming advances. Unlike No-Match, E-Verify relies not just on records from the Social Security Administration’s database, but also checks DHS immigration records and naturalization data, helping to reduce the error rate for naturalized citizens, and cross references Department of State passport data to further reduce mismatches among foreign-born citizens. Other recent improvements to E-Verify include new processes to reduce errors and tools to reduce initial mismatches.
Westat, an independent research firm that sampled data from over 6 million E-Verify queries last fall, reported to DHS that as a result of recent improvements to the E-Verify system, 96.9 percent of workers who submitted identity information from October to December last year were immediately verified as eligible to work. Furthermore, an April 2009 American Customer Satisfaction Index Survey of over a thousand E-Verify participants, E-Verify scored 83 out of a possible 100 points—well above the latest federal government satisfaction index of 69 percent.
“E-Verify is a smart, simple and effective tool that reflects our continued commitment to working with employers to maintain a legal workforce,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Requiring those who seek federal contracts to use this system will create a more reliable and legal workforce. The rule complements our Department’s continued efforts to strengthen immigration law enforcement and protect critical employment opportunities. As Senator Schumer and others have recognized, we need to continue to work to improve E-Verify, and we will.”
The federal contractor rule extends use of the E-Verify system to covered federal contractors and subcontractors, including those who receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. After a careful review, the Administration will push ahead with full implementation of the rule, which will apply to federal solicitations and contract awards Government-wide starting on September 8, 2009.
The rule indicates special considerations for organizations that engage independent contractors and small services vendors as sub-contractors. Increased audits of employment records also indicate increased risk of liability for the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. As legal work status verification via I-9 is only performed on employees and not independent contractors, if workers have been misclassified, then hiring organizations are exposed to not just tax reclassification and co-employment risks, but immigration violations as well. Click here to read a legal opinion paper from Michael Best and Friedrich on the Impacts of E-Verify on Federal Contractors.
As Governor of Arizona, Secretary Napolitano signed legislation mandating all employers in the State use E-Verify. Implementation of this legislation has received high marks from employers across Arizona and the USCIS Ombudsman (in a December 2008 report).
For more information on E-Verify, visit http://www.uscis.gov/everify.
It is time to recruit E-Verify, a part of the SAVE ACT in the extraction of foreign nationals from any business, throughout the United States. We should also recognize it as a major deterrent against other sections of fraud, against federal, state and other government entitlements. For decades welfare has been involved in fraudulent benefit conversion to individuals or groups. Progressive, modified E-Verify will remove the stigma of some--BUT NOT ALL--corruption in the programs, meant as a safety-net for citizens and permanent residents? This is why parasite businesses that use--cheap labor--have been at the fore-front of nullifying any immigration enforcement program, with the assistance of a many politicians who have been brought and sold with campaign contribution and other questionable monies.
ReplyDeleteMillions of angry voices have caused a remarkable change on the leadership in Washington. Have made them address E-Verify as a positive tool in the minimal arsenal of immigration law enforcement. For once the uppermost politicians have ignored the demands of corporate profiteering because of the deafening vocal blast from an irate population. However, we must not drop our guard for one minute towards those who legislate the laws, as a gap in our armor will bring down upon all taxpayers billions of dollars to support illegal immigrant families. Taxpayers have been the supplier for years without any relief, as corporate welfare recipients--WHO PAY NOTHING--to their upkeep. The fight is far from over as the oncoming months will bring to the capitol chamber another rush towards AMNESTY.
Another AMNESTY means even more millions breaking our laws, to take advantage of our plentiful government entitlements. It means overcrowded schools and even more cramming our already saturated hospitals--NOT TO THE MASSES IN THE CRIMINAL PENAL SYSTEM.
We as a nation can no longer afford to underwrite the poor of other countries, who break our sovereign laws, as the bill is already in the trillions of dollars according to the Heritage foundation. What we need is an orderly recruitment of highly skilled professional engineers and scientists and not those who will become public charges. We must do all we can to reduce illegal immigration.
Complete a national two-layer border barrier as originally designed, upgrade the regional police law 287 G federal laws, introduce E-Verify enforcement inspections auditing companies--big and small. Propose a reward to the public who notifies ICE of illegal immigrants in the workplace. No weakening of ICE raids on suspicious businesses around the country. TIME WE TOOK OUR NATION BACK! Keep the politicians feet to the raging fire and call 202-224-3121. All your question answered relating to corruption and lies at NUMBERSUSA AND JUDICIALWATCH. BE AWARE THAT OVERPOPULATION WILL BE AN IRREVERSIBLE ENVIRONMENTAL NIGHTMARE?