House OKs Three-Year Extension of E-Verify Program

With action on comprehensive immigration reform pushed off to next year, the House approved a homeland security funding bill on Thursday, October 15, that would renew a government-run electronic employment verification system.

A provision to extend the mechanism, known as E-Verify, for three years was included in a $42.8 billion appropriations measure the House approved, 307-114, that would fund the Department of Homeland Security for the next fiscal year.

The bill was a product of House-Senate negotiations and is expected to be approved by the Senate.

It allocates $137 million to improve E-Verify’s accuracy and compliance rates and $135 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire special agents for workplace immigration audits.

During bicameral talks last week, Senate amendments that would have permanently authorized E-Verify and would have codified a regulation that makes E-Verify mandatory for federal contractors were dropped.

The decisions cool for now a simmering debate over the effectiveness of E-Verify.

“There’s no consensus on making it permanent, and no interest in tackling this as a stand-alone issue with the prospect of a more wide-ranging debate on comprehensive immigration reform looming in the future,” says Eric Bord, a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Washington.

The mechanism, which checks employee information from I-9 forms against Social Security and homeland security databases, is used voluntarily by more than 148,000 employers.

Groups such as the Society for Human Resource Management have criticized the system for being inefficient, ineffective and unable to detect identity theft. They say that mistakes in government records could cause hundreds of thousands of legal workers to be declared ineligible.

Feds to start immigration crackdown on contractors

WASHINGTON — For federal contractors, it's time to start checking whether employees are able to legally work in the United States.

Beginning Tuesday, the federal government is requiring federal contractors to use the E-Verify system to check the immigration and citizenship status of the people they hire and assign to new federal contracts.

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Contractors have 30 days from the date a contract is awarded to enroll in E-Verify, and 90 days to start submitting information on new hires and certain current workers. Contractors have the option of checking their entire work force, once they notify the government of their intent to do so. They also will be responsible for requiring subcontractors to use E-Verify.

U.S. Intensifies Audits of Employers

John Morton, the new chief of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said that the agency is set to increase the number of companies it will audit and systematically impose fines on violators. Violations could also lead to criminal charges, he said.

E-Verify Verges On Expansion While Congress Weighs Immigration Reform
Used voluntarily by more than 137,000 employers, E-Verify checks new-hire information against Social Security and DHS databases. DHS announced in July that it would implement on September 8 a regulation compelling federal contractors to use E-Verify.

If Immigration Audits Your Employees' Legal Status

The U.S. Homeland Security Dept. under the Obama Administration has continued a Bush-era policy of focusing on employers when enforcing immigration laws. Hiring records, even for small and medium-size businesses, are coming under additional scrutiny, and fines are being levied for violations.

E-Verify Under Fire

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced that it will rescind a rule outlining actions employers should take when they receive a “no-match” letter from Social Security Administration indicating possible illegal employment… DHS indicated that it still intends to pursue more recently proposed rules that would require federal contractors to enroll in the government’s E-Verify system and check the work authorization of all new hires and all employees assigned to a federal contract.

SHRM Urges Virginia Assembly to Reject E-Verify Employer Mandate
In testimony today on behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), former Congressman Bruce A. Morrison urged the Virginia Small Business Commission to reject proposals to mandate the use of E-Verify by Virginia employers.

Immigration Compliance Complexities

The Department of Homeland Security made some moves in July that reflect a continued shift toward investigating employer -- not illegal-immigrant -- violations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced hundreds of planned company audits and continues to make efforts to enhance the E-Verify system.
By Anne Freedman, HR Executive Online

Never an easy problem to begin with, immigration compliance continues to be ever more complex and difficult.

Just this month, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would rescind its No-Match rule, which required the Social Security Administration to notify employers when employee Social Security numbers do not match data in the SSA database.

The rule, which actually never went into effect after the filing of a lawsuit challenging it, required employers to act to correct any discrepancies with the SSA information.

Within days of that decision, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of DHS, also revealed it planned to audit more than 600 employers to ensure compliance with hiring laws.

And, about the same time, DHS announced it would require the use of E-Verify screening for all federal contractors and recipients of bailout funds by Sept. 8. That's another initiative that had been long-delayed by a lawsuit.

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USCIS issues guidance on the Form I-9's expiration date

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced June 26, 2009, that the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (Rev. 02/02/09) will continue to be valid for use beyond June 30, 2009. USCIS has requested that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the continued use of the current version of the form. While this request is pending, the Form I-9 will not expire, said the agency. USCIS will provide an update when the extension is approved. Employers will be able to use either the Form I-9 with the new revision date or the Form I-9 with the 02/02/09 revision date at the bottom of the form. For more information on the Form I-9, please visit: http://www.uscis.gov/i-9.

Pursuant to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, all employers, agricultural recruiters and referrers for a fee are required to verify the identity and employment authorization of each individual they hire for employment in the United States, regardless of that individual's citizenship. As part of the verification process, employers and employees must complete the Form I-9, with employers retaining the form for a statutorily established period of time (three years after the employee's date of hire or one year after the date that employment is discharged) and make the form available for inspection for certain government officials.

The documents designated as acceptable for the Form I-9 are divided among three lists: List A—documents that establish both identity and employment authorization; List B—documents that establish only identity; and List C—documents that establish only employment authorization. Many work authorization documents must be renewed on or before their expiration date, requiring the Form I-9 to be updated. This process is called reverification. The Department of Homeland Security recommends using a "tickler" system to keep track of employees with documents of limited-duration work authorization.

USCIS issued a reminder that effective April 3, 2009, all US employers are required to use the revised Form I-9. The revised Form I-9 reflects changes made to the list of documents acceptable for the form pursuant to an interim rule (http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-29874.pdf) issued in the Federal Register. The interim rule narrowed the list of acceptable identity documents and further specifies that expired documents are not considered acceptable forms of identification. (www.uscis.gov.)

Employer use of federal E-Verify program on the rise

Construction company CEO David Dominguez no longer worries about inadvertently hiring workers who are in this country illegally. That's because he uses E-Verify, the federal program that allows him to quickly check the legal status of potential employees.
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The voluntary federal program has seen a rapid growth in use this year, Department of Homeland Security records show. More than 1,000 employers are signing up each week on average, and employment checks are approaching 200,000 a week.

E-Verify federal contractor rule delayed until Sept. 8th

For the fourth time, the federal government has delayed the effective date of a rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require that certain federal contractors and subcontractors use the federal government's E-Verify program, announced the US Chamber of Commerce, one of the litigants in the case challenging the legality of the rule. The parties have agreed to delay the effective date of the rule to September 8, 2009. The rule has been delayed in order to allow the Obama Administration more time to complete its review of the rule. The decision to delay was reached by agreement between the parties to the lawsuit. Therefore, as it stands now, on or after September 8, contracting officers must include the new E-Verify clause in affected contracts. In addition, contracting officers should modify, on a bilateral basis, existing contracts to include the clause on or after that date. the Federal Acquisitions Regulatory Councils will publish a notice of delay in the Federal Register on June 5.

Immigration Enforcement Targets Employers

Homeland Security chief Napolitano says the agency will step up employment verification efforts using the controversial E-Verify system
The Obama Administration plans to intensify efforts begun under the Bush Administration to crack down on companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants, according to Janet Napolitano, the new head of the of Homeland Security Dept.

Effective Date of E-Verify Rule Delayed Third Time

The federal government has pushed back, for the third time, the effective date of a new rule requiring federal contractors to use the federal government’s E-Verify electronic employment eligibility verification system. The latest effective date is June 30, 2009.

E-Verify is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ system that organizations with federal contracts would be required to use to determine if their new hires and existing employees were authorized to work in the United States.

The rule, which would amend an existing regulation, originally was to take effect Jan. 15, 2009.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) challenged the legality of the rule in a lawsuit filed Dec. 23, 2008, noting that the system’s reliability has come into question and that use of the system was originally intended to be voluntary. A Government Accountability Office report to Congress reiterated long-standing criticisms of E-Verify, SHRM Online reported July 14, 2008.

SHRM is concerned, says Nancy Hammer, manager of SHRM’s regulatory and judicial affairs, “that the rule exceeds the government’s authority by mandating use of the E-Verify program, which was designed as a voluntary pilot project, and by mandating the re-verification of existing federal contract employees, currently not allowed.”

E-Verify would apply to federal contracts with a performance period of more than 120 days and a value of more than $100,000, according to an April 16, 2009. statement from Andrew B. Greenfield, a partner in Frogmen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy, LLP, a Washington, D.C. law firm that writes periodically about legal issues for SHRM Online.

Service and construction subcontracts of a covered contract would be required to include the E-Verify clause if the subcontract’s value is more than $3,000, he noted.

Exemptions to the rule would include contracts for items that are available commercially “off the shelf” or that require only minor modifications, federal contracts for food and agricultural products shipped as bulk cargo and contracts for work performed outside the United States.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Associated Builders and Contractors, HR Policy Association and the American Council on International Personnel joined SHRM in the lawsuit, which seeks to have the planned rule rescinded. Earlier, the U.S. Justice Department rescheduled the date from Jan. 15 to Feb. 20, 2009.

SHRM is hopeful, Hammer said, that “this additional delay of the rule allows more time for the government to re-evaluate its position and consider SHRM’s concerns.” In light of the delay in the rule’s effective date, she added, the parties have agreed to extend the stay of the lawsuit.

A notice delaying the rule until June 30, 2009 was published in the April 17, 2009 Federal Register.