Homeland Security: Employers can no longer use expired documents in hiring

Beginning in February, employers in the United States will not be allowed to use expired documents to verify workers' employment eligibility.

The interim rule, published on Wednesday in the Federal Register by the Homeland Security Department, aims to streamline the employment eligibility verification process and crack down on fraud. As of Feb. 2, 2009, expired U.S. passports or state-issued driver's licenses and other outdated identification cards will no longer qualify as valid documentation for Form I-9. Social Security cards will not be affected by the change because they do not expire.

"Expired documents are prone to fraudulent use in the Form I-9 process by aliens seeking unauthorized employment," the Federal Register notice stated.

Employers must fill out Form I-9 for all new hires to verify their identity and authorization to work in the United States. The form, mandated by the 1986 Immigration and Reform Control Act, is a key component of DHS' controversial Electronic Employment Verification System. Employers still can use the paper version, but there also is I-9 software that integrates identification information into E-Verify.

New hires can present various forms of identification to prove their work eligibility. The list of approved documents is divided into three categories: List A, which includes documents that verify identity and employment authorization; List B, which confirms identity only; and List C, which certifies employment authorization only. U.S. passports are included on List A, while driver's licenses fall into category B. Workers must either provide one document from List A, or one document each from lists B and C.

The interim rule also eliminates several types of identification included on List A: temporary resident cards and older versions of the employment authorization card/document (Forms I-688, I-688A and I-688B). DHS no longer issues those forms of ID.

While the new regulation takes effect on Feb. 2, the department is accepting comments and could modify the final rule.

Regulation Requires Federal Contractors to Use E-Verify

Federal contractors will be required to use a government-run electronic employment eligibility verification system starting early next year under a regulation announced Friday, November 14. The Department of Homeland Security said the 274-page rule will go into effect January 15, 2009. Companies that win a federal contract of more than $100,000—and subcontractors with contracts of greater than $3,000—will have to enroll in E-Verify, the electronic verification mechanism, within 30 days of being awarded the work. The firms will have to check the eligibility of existing and new employees who directly work on federal contracts. The regulation was first issued as an executive order by President Bush in June. The original regulatory proposal received 1,600 public comments. Currently, about 92,000 companies use E-Verify. The contractor rule could add an additional 150,000 to 180,000 employers. Under the system, new-hire information from I-9 forms is electronically compared with Social Security and DHS databases. Many employer groups have criticized E-Verify for being inaccurate, inefficient and unable to detect identity theft. They argue that the 4.1 percent error rate in the Social Security database could lead to millions of people being incorrectly ruled ineligible for work. Supporters of E-Verify say the system confirms 96 percent of queries instantly and has an error rate of less than 1 percent. The program, which is voluntary, has become a foundation of the Bush administration’s stepped-up work-site enforcement efforts. The crackdown intensified after the demise of comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate in 2007. Observers say the federal contractor requirement is a way for the DHS to significantly boost E-Verify participation. “The administration is trying to accomplish through regulation what it cannot accomplish through legislation,” said Eric Bord, a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Washington. The fate of the regulation, however, is not necessarily settled. Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress has 60 days to reject a regulation. But the E-Verify rule is scheduled to go into effect before the new Congress is seated in January. The current Congress probably wouldn’t act in a lame-duck session next week. In addition, Congress could stop a rule by refusing to appropriate money for it. Beyond legislative challenges, businesses could sue to stop the implementation. Employer groups are questioning the legality re-verifying existing workers. They also say that the implementation is occurring too quickly. “I don’t think the last word on the E-Verify contractor rule has been spoken,” said Mike Aitken, director of governmental affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management. After Congress resumes work next year, it will have to reauthorize the law that established E-Verify, which is scheduled to expire in March. The program would have sunsetted this month if Congress hadn’t extended it to March earlier this fall. It’s unlikely that President-elect Barack Obama will oppose the contractor rule, according to Bord. “I would be surprised if an Obama administration’s first initiative in immigration would be to rescind something that is seen by the public as an enforcement tool,” Bord said. He also anticipates an extension of the E-Verify law. “The Obama administration will take a very low-key approach to E-Verify and endorse its quiet reauthorization in March in order to avoid opening the Pandora’s box of comprehensive reform,” Bord said. Ultimately, employer groups such as the HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce, which is led by SHRM, want to overhaul E-Verify. They are promoting legislation that would create what they call a better and more secure approach to electronic verification. “Instead of extending E-Verify to federal contractors, we should take the time to make improvements to the system,” Aitken said. While Congress continues to mull E-Verify policy, Bord says all companies should prepare for its expansion. “If you are a non-contractor, you need to see this as a preview of things to come because states will increasingly regulate in this area,” he said. - Mark Schoeff

Contractors must verify immigration status
Federal Times - USA
Contractors would report the immigration status of their employees using the Homeland Security Department’s E-Verify online system.

Final E-Verify rule kinder to small businesses
Nextgov - Washington,DC,USA
Under a final rule published in the Federal Register on Friday, companies only will need to insert a clause requiring vetting through the E-Verify system

Government to Limit Planned Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants
Washington Post - United States
The Bush administration has made the work eligibility system, called E-Verify, a main pillar of its fight against illegal immigration, proposing to make its

Feds reissue 'no-match' rule

The Department of Homeland Security reissued its Social Security "no-match" rule for employers Thursday, and said it will seek court approval for the requirement. A federal judge had ordered a preliminary injunction against the rule in October 2007 to prevent it from taking effect.

Opponents argued the rule relies on an error-prone Social Security Administration database and would result in legal workers being fired and discrimination against those who look or sound foreign. Those that sued to stop the rule include the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America.

The no-match rule requires employers to take a series of steps if the Social Security Administration notifies them of workers whose Social Security numbers don't match their names on file. The steps could include firing workers who can't resolve the match within 90 days. If employers don't take action, the Department of Homeland Security would consider them to have knowledge that they hired illegal workers if they are later discovered in an on-site investigation.

Social Security numbers that don't match may be the result of a clerical error or name change, but they might also come from a fake number given by an undocumented worker.

Border Insecurity: Immigration Reform and Talent Management

Comprehensive immigration reform intertwines illegal workers and national security into a single emotional debate. But it's the talent and performance implications that have many talent managers feeling insecure.

As election season heats up in the United States, comprehensive immigration reform efforts have cooled off. With skilled talent continuing to come at a premium, more and more organizations are feeling the resulting pinch.

Read more.

States do fed's jobs on immigration

What most states are turning to is E-Verify – the electronic verification system designed to ensure that people working here are legally entitled to. Gerri Ratliff, who is in charge of the E-Verify program for the homeland security department, reported that only 15 states haven't had some piece of legislation introduced or passed on this program.

Checking citizenship made mandatory
President Bush's executive order directs federal contractors to finally do what federal agencies already do -- use the E-Verify Internet system to confirm a worker's legal status within seconds.

Millions of contract employees to be vetted for legal employment status
Federal contractors will be required to vet nearly 4 million current and future employees through an online government database to verify their legal working status, under a proposed rule published last week in the Federal Register.

Agents arrest five supervisors at poultry plant
Federal agents have arrested five supervisors at a Greenville poultry plant as part of an investigation into alleged immigration violations, authorities said Wednesday.

Sun Valley labor problem focuses on work authorization challenges
As the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is making its presence felt at more than Sun Valley Floral Farms.

Excerpted Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Department of Commerce Secretary Gutierrez at the State of Immigration Address

One critical tool for our success is giving the employer the means to check whether the applicant for a job is in fact presenting a valid social security number and name that match what is in our government databases. And the tool used to do this is E-Verify. This system has been a tremendous success, and the proof of the pudding is the marketplace itself. Every week on average, about a thousand new employers join this program. And I will tell you that at this point, I will estimate that is almost -- maybe actually more than ten percent of the new hires being hired in the United States are currently being run through this E-Verify system.

We have almost 70,000 employers currently enrolled. The system works. Of those workers who are legal, 99.5 percent of them roughly are verified essentially instantaneously. And if those workers who have a mismatch -- legal workers who we estimate to be about a half a percent, they are able generally to resolve their issue within less than two days.

Report critical of effect of state's employer sanctions law

Report critical of effect of state's employer sanctions law
Fewer than 15 percent of Arizona employers - about 20,000 - have signed up to use the federal government's E-Verify system to check whether a new employee's name matches the employee's Social Security number, according to the Immigration Policy Center.

Best Compliance Practices and Immigration
The government no longer is issuing small fines to employers who commit serious Form I-9 violations. ICE now is conducting lengthy criminal investigations that result in indictments of company owners, executives, managers and other company personnel involved in these illegal activities. Criminal charges include harboring illegal aliens, money laundering and/or knowingly hiring illegal aliens. These offenses can carry a potential 10-20 year prison sentence, plus forfeiture of all company assets and revenues utilized in this illegal activity.

Businesses Learn Requirements of New Immigration LawRecently passed Mississippi Immigration legislation has businesses cramming to learn new hiring requirements. Starting July first, employers are required to verify the immigration status of new workers so companies from across the state participated in a seminar on the federal E-Verify.

Federal database assures a legal work force
Originally known as the Basic Pilot program and presented as a mandatory method of verifying work eligibility, E-Verify is presently a voluntary system that should be expanded, better funded and mandatory, with the goal of eliminating the magnet that draws illegals to our nation.

Immigration reform must be more than a 'Band-Aid'
Given that Senate and House conferees are trying for the second time this legislative session to compromise on a bill, we're not very optimistic they will produce a bill that accomplishes what they say they want to accomplish -- getting tough on businesses that hire illegal workers and thus taking away the reason many illegal immigrants are here.

Democrats Decry Immigration Raid at Iowa Processing Plant
Democrats are criticizing a recent government work-site raid targeted at illegal employees, asserting that the action separated parents from their children and devastated the local community. They called for a greater focus on employers who are breaking the law.

On immigration, bluster but little action
Tougher penalties for identity theft. A ban on so-called "sanctuary cities." New penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants. They were among proposals declared a priority…

Blunt addresses immigration law
Gov. Matt Blunt addressed House Bill 1549 during Branson’s “Capital for the Day.” Blunt highlighted the recent action taken by the General Assembly and reported he does not think the E-Verify system will cause significant delay.

Immigration Theater
Federal immigration officials raided an Iowa meatpacking plant this month in what is being called the largest operation of its kind in U.S. history. Nearly 400 of the plant's 900 employees were arrested on immigration charges.

SHRM Asks for More Time, Protection in New ‘No-Match’ Rule
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has submitted comments on the Department of Homeland Security’s Supplemental Proposed Rule clarifying a rule it finalized in 2007 on employer guidance in handling Social Security “no-match” letters regarding work eligibility.

US database verifies immigration status
Rhode Island is one of five states –– the others being Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma –– that require all state agencies and companies that do business with their state to use the E-Verify system. Rhode Island is also among 15 states considering legislation to mandate the use of the E-Verify system for all new hires.

Father of E-Verify Mixes It Up With SHRM Over Government’s ...
The problem with E-Verify, opponents argue, is that it relies on the current database, which has a 4.1 percent error rate and could mistakenly declare millions of people ineligible for employment.

Senate should now approve immigration reform bill
The House proved by its vote last week that it's serious about dealing with the immigration problem in this state.

Businesses hire agents to use E-Verify system
The Legal Arizona Workers Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires employers in the state to use E-Verify or risk losing a defense in court if prosecuted. A company risks losing its business licenses if caught knowingly or intentionally hiring illegal workers. As of May 3, nearly 24,000 Arizona employers had signed up for E-Verify.

Competing House bills use databases to check workers' legal status
Bill would force companies to use government databases to verify the legal status of workers.

Missouri House endorses E-Verify legislation
The bill would require employers to use the federal E-Verify database to check if their newly-hired employees are eligible to work in the United States.

A Business Sparked by the Online I-9
Vendors that are marketing I-9 compliance software include established background checking and hiring management firms such as Kroll…

Feds want your photo on E-Verify
The federal agency is talking with the Arizona Department of Transportation and other states' agencies "to incorporate driver's license photographs into E-Verify," according to a report on E-Verify from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Senate gives initial OK to immigration bill
SC proposal would require that private employers verify each workers’ legal status using either a South Carolina driver’s license, a federal electronic verification system or a new state form similar to the federal I-9 form that would be monitored by state regulators.

Mayday for undocumented workers
Again this May Day, immigrant workers are filling the streets, making the same point. Yet today, the federal government is taking actions that make holding a job a criminal act. Some states and local communities, seeing a green light from the Department of Homeland Security, are passing measures that go even further.

RI House OKs bill requiring employers to use E-Verify
Under the plan, any employer with three or more workers would be required to confirm through an online government database whether the new hire is authorized to work in this country.

RI House OKs immigration billThe bill, adopted 53 to 17, would force all companies in Rhode Island to use a federal database called E-Verify to determine whether new hires are in the country legally.

DHS Extends Optional Practical Training for Certain Highly Skilled Foreign Students Employed by Businesses Enrolled in E-Verify

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an interim final rule extending the period of Optional Practical Training from 12 to 29 months for qualified F-1 non-immigrant students with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics who are employed by businesses enrolled in the E-Verify program.

E-Verify Immigration Program Draws Criticism
California is one of the few states that have implemented the E-Verify program, which verifies the legal status of job candidates for 52,000 participating employers in a handful of states could expand rapidly into the rest of the nation experts say.

Day-labor numbers dropping in Orange
New ordinances cracking down on businesses allowing day workers to congregate add to declining numbers in Orange County, CA.

Immigration deal reached
SC legislative negotiators will allow private employers to use a variety of methods to verify the legal status of their employees, including the federal I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form and E-Verify.

Sanford reiterates call for strong immigration bill
Currently, the SC House version of the bill does not contain any verification requirements for private employers. The Senate version contains a verification requirement for private employers, but permits it to be satisfied by using the failed Federal I-9 form verification process. The I-9 process is an ineffective system already employed by the federal government in which fraudulent documents can be used to satisfy the verification requirements, and federal law prohibits employers or states from checking the validity of the documents.

A step in the right direction
Senate Bill 2988 requires all employers in Mississippi to confirm the legal status of all new employees by using the E-Verify Program, the federal online employment verification system. The bill makes it a discriminatory practice to dismiss a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien while retaining an employee who is illegally in our country, and makes it a felony for an illegal alien to accept or perform employment.

More employers verifying immigration status
Employers have screened about 2.5 million new hires in the first six months of fiscal 2008 through E-Verify, the Department of Homeland Security's database that determines which employees can legally work in the U.S.

59 Arrested On Illegal Working Charges At Lansdowne
The investigation started in early July 2007 after a routine inspection of all I-9 employment eligibility verification forms at the resort. Through analysis of the I-9 forms, ICE agents identified information that led them to suspect that many of the employees were using fraudulent documents or had stolen someone else's identity to secure jobs at the resort.

Recent news on immigration legislation

Feds Take Hard Line on Immigrant Hiring
On March 26, the Department of Homeland Security reissued a rule that would force companies to either resolve within 90 days discrepancies between a worker’s name and Social Security number or fire the employee. It would effectively make so-called “no-match” letters evidence of the illegal hiring.

Office of Special Counsel's Antidiscrimination Guidance for Employers Following the DHS Safe-Harbor Procedures
The Department of Homeland Security’s Safe-Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter offers employers who receive no-match letters from the Social Security Administration a safe-harbor in a related immigration enforcement action if those employers follow the series of steps set forth in the no-match rule to ensure that the information provided by affected employees to confirm their work eligibility is genuine.

Illegal Immigration Is A Facility Management Issue
With reform a hot political topic, changes could significantly redefine the workforce.

Kansas Immigration Bills
With the House and Senate passing different immigration bills, the focus moves to what their negotiators will draft as a final version, and some say they'll be combining measures weakened to satisfy the business community.

Measure provides incentives for firms to use E-Verify
Arizona companies that don't check the legal status of new workers would lose access to government contracts and special economic incentives under the terms of proposed legislation approved Tuesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Kansas Immigration bill passes House
Among other things, the measure increases penalties for using false documents to gain illegal employment and creates the crime of helping an illegal immigrant to vote. It also creates criminal penalties for businesses that illegally treat workers as independent subcontractors.

ID checks may be forced
Businesses across South Carolina would have to check new hires through a federal work-eligibility database under some versions of the state's planned crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Department of Homeland Security’s No-Match Program Shifts Burden ...
It’s estimated that 800,000 employers could receive notices; representing a fundamental shift in how businesses are forced to handle the issue of illegal workers. The No-Match program is an enormous step in increased workplace raids looking for undocumented workers.

Immigration reform turns into a minefield for lawmakers
Immigrants break the law if they are here illegally. Businesses that exploit their cheap labor break the law. The law should be enforced.

Five IFCO managers indicted on federal charges
A grand jury has returned a six-count felony indictment against five current managers of the Pallet Management Division of IFCO Systems North America (IFCO). The indictment charges the managers with engaging in a conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, to encourage and induce, and to transport illegal aliens.

DHS Continues to Push SSA No-Match Letters in Worksite Enforcement Strategy

Continuing its effort to use Social Security Administration “No Match” letters to employers for immigration enforcement purposes, the Department of Homeland Security has filed a “supplemental” proposed rule seeking to cure deficiencies of its “ Safe Harbor ” rule.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) knows that many employers continue to employ significant numbers of unauthorized foreign workers. Since 1986 all U.S. employers have been required to complete Form I-9 and review documents supplied by each newly hired worker to verify the worker’s identity and employment authorization. False documents using fabricated or stolen identities have evaded the effectiveness of the I-9 process.

DHS is pursuing many parallel paths to prevent the employment of unauthorized workers, including:

• Increased audits by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of employers’ I-9 forms for existing
• Increased ICE worksite raids followed by deportation of unauthorized workers and prosecution of the employers and individual managers ICE alleges to have known the workers were illegal
• Promotion and expansion of DHS’ technically voluntary and pilot “E-Verify” electronic employment verification system through cooperation with states that are increasingly enacting laws threatening employers with loss of government contracts and state business licenses and through an imminent federal regulation that will require all federal government contractors to use E-Verify
• Clarification to employers that ignoring Social Security Administration (SSA) “no-match letters” will constitute “constructive knowledge” that affected workers are not unauthorized to work in the U.S.

The DHS proposed rule, to be published in the Federal Register during the week of March 24, 2008, relates to the last measure. DHS had planned to use SSA no-match letters in its worksite enforcement strategy, both by inserting a new ICE letter with each SSA no-match letter and by updating its I-9 regulations to clarify that an SSA no-match letter can constitute “constructive knowledge” unless the employer receiving it follows certain “safe harbor” procedures. DHS’ “safe harbor” regulation is currently held up by a court injunction in a lawsuit brought by combined employer and union interests, AFL-CIO, et al. v. Chertoff, et al., No. 07-4472-CRB (N.D. Cal. Aug. 29, 2007). DHS is trying to cure the legal defects pointed out by the court even while it appeals the injunction.

One of the most important defects cited by the court was the failure of the past regulation to conduct an analysis of its impact on small businesses as required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act. In the supplemental proposed rule (the “Supplement”), DHS purports to conduct that analysis, but it only assesses the cost of complying with the “safe harbor” procedures, such as “human resources personnel, certain training costs, legal services, and lost productivity.” DHS estimates the costs at between $3,000 and $34,000 per employer, depending on the number of workers employed. DHS refuses to recognize the economic costs to employers and the economy as a whole that will result from the loss of the services of unauthorized employees who end up being terminated as a result of no-match letters. DHS states that such economic costs are attributable to the twenty-year old law prohibiting employment of unauthorized aliens, “not to this rule.” The plaintiffs in the pending lawsuit will challenge this assumption and seek to continue the injunction of the revised no-match letter process.

Meanwhile, however, in the Supplement DHS has clarified that it - as well as INS before it - has always taken the “informal” position that ignoring a SSA no-match letter can constitute “constructive knowledge” of employment of unauthorized aliens. DHS portrays the new “safe harbor” regulation as an effort to provide specific guidance and protection to employers who follow its steps after receiving a no-match letter. For this reason, employers should not ignore the few no-match letters that SSA has been issuing lately and should consider what steps to take in light of no-match letters received over the past several years.

DHS continues to raid employers it suspects of knowingly employing illegal workers. In doing so, DHS frequently subpoenas employers’ SSA no-match letters from the past and evaluates them as indicators of the employer’s knowledge for purposes of prosecution and fines.

Moreover, DHS states that “[t]he rule does not affect the authority of the SSA to issue no-match letters, or the authority of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to impose and collect taxes, or the authority of DOJ to enforce the anti-discrimination provisions of the INA or adjudicate notices of intent to fine employers.” In addition, the rule might not limit the ability of U.S. Attorneys in the Department of Justice to use employers’ responses to SSA no-match letters in prosecutions of employers and managers, which has been increasing.

In an unfortunate and odd legal twist, DHS, reacting to court criticism that it tried to speak for other federal departments, has withdrawn statements from its rule that had reassured employers that compliance with “safe harbor” procedures would insulate them from discrimination charges by the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Counsel. The Office of Special Counsel has issued a statement about the safe harbor rule:

"However, if an employer follows all of the safe harbor procedures outlined in DHS’s no-match rule but cannot determine that an employee is authorized to work in the United States, and therefore terminates that employee, and if that employer applied the same procedures to all employees referenced in the no-match letter(s) uniformly and without the purpose or intent to discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived citizenship status or national origin, then OSC will not find reasonable cause to believe that the employer has violated section 1324b’s anti-discrimination provision, and that employer will not be subject to suit by the United States under that provision."

Employers must implement immigration enforcement measures in a manner that is consistent for all workers and is carefully timed to avoid the appearance of retaliation against workers asserting labor and discrimination protections.

Employers must not use no-match letters to terminate employers without affording them the opportunity to correct the many types of errors in SSA's database that lawful workers can suffer from, such as spelling errors, incomplete names, date order inversion, valid name changes from divorce or marriage, as well as cultural differences in name order. Meanwhile, all U.S. workers should seek to correct errors in their social security account information even aside from a no-match letter in order to reduce confusion with employers. Workers who realize their identity has been stolen should report the problem to a SSA office as quickly as possible. The pressure to correct records exerted by DHS' strategy could put a strain on SSA staffing capability.

In another odd twist, the Supplement seems to acknowledge that employers can ignore SSA no-match letters relating to "grandfathered" employees hired before November 6, 1996, when the law requiring I-9 forms was enacted.

Employers expecting SSA no-match letters once the injunction is lifted should seriously consider joining the E-Verify system, which in effect performs at the time of hire a match against the SSA database (as well as against immigration databases for workers not claiming U.S. citizenship). E-Verify currently cannot be used to verify existing workers, but using E-Verify should help avoid future no-match letters and will prepare employers for increasing requirements by state and federal governments mentioned above.

Of course, neither SSA no-match resolution procedures nor E-Verify participation can prevent effective use by unauthorized employees who have stolen a real person's identity embodied in convincing false documents. Thus, even employers using these measures must remain alert to other signs of a worker's lack of authorization in order to avoid "constructive knowledge."

Briefing on Immigration Enforcement and Border Security Efforts

Excerpted from press release:
Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Attorney General Mukasey at a Briefing on Immigration Enforcement and Border Security Efforts

Release Date: February 22, 2008

Secretary Chertoff:

In fiscal year 2007, ICE made 863 criminal arrests including 92 individuals who were in the employer/supervisory chain. We also made over 4,000 administrative arrests. Most of these arrests are for identity theft. And identity theft is not only a crime with respect to immigration laws, but it is a crime that hurts real people.

Let me give you some examples, some specific real-life examples of what we have done in the last year with respect to employer and employee work site enforcement actions. On February 7 of this year, 57 illegal aliens were arrested during a work site enforcement operation conducted at Universal Industrial Sales in Lindon, Utah. ICE forwarded roughly 30 cases to the Utah County Attorneys Office for criminal prosecution for offenses such as identity theft, forgery and document fraud. And the U.S. Attorney also unsealed two indictments charging a company and its human resources director with harboring illegal aliens and inducing or encouraging them to stay in the U.S. illegally.

In January of this year, a federal jury convicted a former human resources director at a poultry plant in Butterfield, Missouri of harboring an illegal alien and inducing an illegal alien to enter or reside in the U.S. Under federal statues this person faces up to 10 years in prison without parole. Another formal employer recently plead guilty to aggravated identity theft. A total of 136 illegal aliens were arrested as part of this investigation into identity theft, social security fraud and immigration-related violations at the plant.

In March of last year, 2007, a textile product company in New Bedford, Massachusetts was raided, and the owner and three other managers were arrested and charged with conspiring to encourage or induce illegal aliens to reside in the U.S. and to hire illegal aliens. Another person was charged in a separate complaint with knowing transfer of fraud human identification documents. Approximately 320 illegal workers were arrested on administrative charges as well.

And also in March of 2007, the owner of an Indiana business that performed construction services in seven Midwest states plead guilty to violation relating to the harboring of illegal aliens and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He also forfeited $1.4 million. These are the kinds of cases that have high impact on those who would hire and employ undocumented and illegal aliens often facilitated through identity theft and document fraud.

I am delighted to say as part of our effort to continue to make it less appealing for people to break the law, we will soon publish a regulation with the Department of Justice to increase civil fines on employers as we announced last August. This is again, a way to keep that pressure up to make sure people are compliant with the law.

A couple of other brief things before I turn it over to the Attorney General. As important as it is to punish law breaking, we have got to make it easy to follow the law. There has got to be a path to legality as well as punishment for illegality. And so we want to continue to move forward, to get our no-match regulation out there. We are very close to publishing our new no-match rule, which we think will address the issues raised by the court as a consequence of an ACLU lawsuit last year, which was designed to make it impossible for us to tell employers a very simple, common sense principle that when you get information that someone may have something questionable about their social security number/identity, you should inquire further, and that you cannot hire illegal aliens. And we are looking forward to getting this issue resolved in the very near future.

Likewise, we are continuing to promote the use of E-Verify. The state of Arizona, I think, in the last couple of days had its new rule requiring E-Verify use sustained by the federal courts, and we are beginning to see that illegal workers are picking up and leaving, because they recognize this system is an impediment to their continued illegal activities and illegal employment in this country.

Nationally, we are adding 1800 new E-Verify users every week, that is the marketplace speaking. That is employers saying they want to get on board with this. We have over 53,000 employers now using E-Verify, which is more than double what we had fiscal year 2007. And more than 1.7 million new hires have been queried this fiscal year under the system. This is a good news story.

Now the federal government needs to lead by example, and in the coming weeks we are going to issue a proposed rule requiring federal contractors to use E-Verify. This will significantly expand the use of E-Verify, and continue to build capabilities that will help people comply with the law and make it harder to violate.

Finally, we need to talk about continuing to focus on those illegally in the country who are fugitives, criminals, and gang members, which we do through targeted enforcement operations again, in cooperation with the Department of Justice.

In fiscal year 2007, our fugitive ops teams arrested 30,000 individuals, double what was the case in fiscal year 2006. These teams, which we have quadrupled to 75 teams since fiscal year 2005 focused on people who have violated a judges removal order or who have criminal records. We have also expanded our criminal alien program initiating formal removal proceedings against 164,000 illegal aliens who are serving prison terms for crimes they have committed here in the United States. We don’t need to import criminals into America, we need to have them go back where they came from.

In fiscal year 2007, ICE arrested 3,302 gang members and their associates as part of operation community shield, including 1442 arrests for criminal activity. And this year we have arrested a further 723 gang members and their associates. This is focusing on people who are a threat to the safety and security of American citizens.

States Taking Matters into their Own Hands

Employers face increasing pressure to verify worker identity
States, with Arizona in the lead, are also going after employers for hiring practices, threatening to revoke business licenses if employers do not make a serious effort to verify their workers' identities.

Lawmakers' feelings mixed on immigration bill
Mississippi bill mandates that employers use the e-verify system, a free Internet database ran by the Department of Homeland Security in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, to check a potential employee's work eligibility.

Misspissippi Passes Employer Sanctions Bill Which Criminalizes Unlawful Employment
The Mississippi Employment Protection Act requires all employers in the state to use E-Verify.

SC Governor expressed concern about pitfall immigration bill
Gov. favors requiring private employers to check South Carolina driver's licenses, a new S.C. version of the I-9, or to use the online E-Verify system. He noted that five states already use E-Verify: Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia.

Measure targeting illegals shaped
The final version of South Carolina’s illegal immigration reform plan could be completed soon.

Missouri business groups fret over E-Verify bills
Businesses that don't use E-Verify and hire illegal immigrants would be punished more severely than those that do use the system.

Hearing Tuesday on Suffolk County, NY contractor law
Law that requires contractors doing business with the county to confirm employees' legal status.

UPS crackdown hits workers, spares business
A year after Washington state work-site raids, fully two-thirds of the 51 illegal immigrants arrested have either been deported or told to leave the country. But no charges have been brought against the employment agency that hired the immigrants or UPS, where they worked.

2007 Enacted State Legislation Related to Immigrants and Immigration

In the absence of federal immigration reform, state legislatures have passed an unprecedented amount of legislation related to immigrants in a range of policy arenas.

• The number of state laws enacted in 2007 is nearly triple that of 2006: 240 compared to 84.

• Immigration is being debated in all 50 state capitols. 1562 bills were introduced in the 50 states. Laws were enacted in 46 states in 2007, compared to 32 states in 2006.

• States are passing legislation that utilizes a broad range of enforcement and integration strategies to address legal and unauthorized immigration.

• The top 3 topics in enacted laws are identification/licenses (40), employment (29), and public benefits (33). In 2006 they were employment (14) and human trafficking (13).

• Immigration continues to being addressed in a broad range of policy arenas, including education (22), health (14), human trafficking (18); law enforcement (16); and resolutions (50).

• One state passed omnibus legislation in 2007 – Oklahoma. The bill addresses identification, public benefits, law enforcement; and employment verification, and creates a felony for harboring or transporting unauthorized immigrants. In 2006, Georgia passed omnibus legislation addressing employment, enforcement and benefits. In 2006, Colorado enacted a slate of 12 laws in special session addressing employment, enforcement, voting, and benefits, and placed two on the general election ballot regarding business deductions and suing the federal government to demand it enforce immigration laws.

• Identification/licenses laws (40 laws in 30 states) relate primarily to driver’s licenses or REAL ID, while others address professional licensing or recreational licenses.

• Employment laws (33 laws in 19 states) relate to the verification of work authorization by employers and contractors; disallowing tax deductions for unauthorized workers; and eligibility for worker’s compensation and unemployment insurance. Arizona and Illinois took different approaches to the federal work authorization database, Basic Pilot, recently renamed E-Verify. Arizona mandates the use of the pilot program, while Illinois bans its use until the accuracy has improved. The laws in Arizona and Illinois are being challenged in the courts.

• Public benefits (32 laws in 19 states) laws address eligibility and exemptions for immigrants for state funded benefits. Several laws fund programs for migrant workers. Four states set guidelines in child abduction cases where immigration or citizenship status changes may adversely affect a petitioner’s ability to remain in the United States.

The 2007 report is available at: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/immig/2007immigrationfinal.htm

Immigration issues continue to dominate the political landscape

Complying with immigration laws has become a critical subject. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) increasingly has focused its immigration enforcement efforts on employers who hire unauthorized workers and during the past months has brought several high-profile enforcement actions against employers alleged to have knowingly employed unauthorized workers. Those actions, coupled with DHS's recent updating of the I-9 form and activity surrounding the no-match letters issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA), should give you reason to take notice.

HR Groups Support Bill to Create New Employment Verification System
The New Employee Verification Act (NEVA), which was introduced this week, would eliminate the I-9 Form and would require employers to use a new paperless Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS).

Bill proposes new employee verification system

The New Employee Verification Act proposes to replace the Homeland Security Department’s current E-Verify system, which began as a voluntary pilot program 10 years ago.

HR Pushes Alternative to E-VerifyUnder the legislation, known as "The New Employee Verification Act," job applicants will visit contractors who would confirm identities through background checks and, if employers choose, through biometric data as well.

Economy serves up an unhappy meal
Last year, Illinois lawmakers passed a law barring employers in that state from using E-Verify, the federal online program that checks employment eligibility... Meanwhile, Arizona legislators passed the employer-sanctions law that virtually requires using E-Verify.

Order to screen worker IDs sparks debate Order to screen illegal
Minnesota recently mandated that thousands of the major state contractors use E-Verify - the federal employment verification system.

Kansas opens debate on illegal immigration
Legislators agree that Kansas employers shouldn't hire illegal immigrants, but they disagree over how the state should punish violators.

Immigration Crackdown's Backers Have Their Say

Immigration Crackdown's Backers Have Their Say
Kansas House bills 2836 and 2680 would require employers to check all employees for legal status through a database called E-Verify. House Bill 2921 encourages employers to use the system to avoid liability for hiring illegal workers, but would not mandate it. E-Verify checks names and identification numbers with the Social Security Administration and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Bigger Fines for Hiring Unauthorized Workers
The federal government is raising the fines against employers that violate federal immigration laws. Under the new rule civil fines will increase by as much as $5,000 as they are adjusted for inflation. The new rule will take effect on March 27, 2008, and will be published in the Federal Register.

Employment Verification Requirements Passes Committee
The Utah Senate panel has approved a bill aimed at requiring companies that contract with the state use a federal Internet-based system to check employees' work eligibility.

US Presidential Initiatives Boost Immigration Reforms and Border
On on January 28, 2008, President George W. Bush delivered an important message on strengthening U.S. immigration in his State of the Union Address. While millions of Americans watched, he stated, "America needs to secure our borders -- and with your help, my administration is taking steps to do so. We're increasing worksite enforcement, deploying fences and advanced technologies to stop illegal crossings. We've effectively ended the policy of "catch and release" at the border, and by the end of this year, we will have doubled the number of border patrol agents. Yet we also need to acknowledge that we will never fully secure our border until we create a lawful way for foreign workers to come here and support our economy. This will take pressure off the border and allow law enforcement to concentrate on those who mean us harm. We must also find a sensible and humane way to deal with people here illegally. Illegal immigration is complicated, but it can be resolved. And it must be resolved in a way that upholds both our laws and our highest ideals."

SHRM-Endorsed Employment Verification Bill is Introduced in the US House of Representatives

Today, the SHRM-led “HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce” coalition hosted a news conference at the U.S. Capitol with U.S. Representatives Sam Johnson (R-TX), Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Kevin Brady (R-TX) announcing introduction of H.R. 5515, the “New Employee Verification Act” (NEVA). The bill would replace the federal government’s current employer verification process with a new electronic verification system, the Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS).

Under the bill, employers would use the state “new hire” reporting process, which is currently used for child support enforcement, to access EEVS. This would allow employers to confirm the work eligibility of U.S. citizens through the Social Security Administration database and that of non-citizens through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) database.

In addition, the bill also would create a voluntary biometrics option that employers could choose to use in the verification process. This system would include a standard background check and the collection of a “biometric” characteristic — such as a thumbprint — to secure an employee’s identity and prevent the illegal use a Social Security number, stolen or fraudulently-obtained drivers’ license, or altered identification documents. To protect employers from liability, the legislation would provide employers a safe harbor.

Other key NEVA provisions of interest to HR professionals include:

Allows the entire attestation requirements to be done electronically as well eliminates the current Form I-9.

Applies only to employer’s newly hired employees and would not require employers to re-verify all existing employees as is required by other bills.

Allows employers to check the employee through the electronic system beginning on the date of hire and ending at the end of the third business day after the employee has reported to work.

Provides that federal immigration law preempts any state law in regard to employer fines or sanctions for immigration-related issues or in requiring employers to verify work status or identity for work authorization purposes.

Requires employers to be responsible only for the hiring decisions of their own employees, not those of their subcontractors.

Click HERE for more information on the bill from the House Ways and Means Committee’s website. For an in-depth summary of the bill’s provisions, click HERE.