ARIZONA DAILY STAR – Published: 05.01.2009

Our view: Bill would make employers’ legal status checks more accurate, useful

Although it’s only one of several steps needed to fix the nation’s broken immigration system, we believe federal legislation aimed at revamping the way businesses check on potential employees’ work eligibility should move forward.

As outlined in the New Employee Verification Act of 2009, which was re-introduced last week by U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and Sam Johnson, R-Texas, the program promises to be more efficient, less error-prone and would, for the first time, be mandatory for companies nationwide looking to hire workers.

To check the eligibility of potential workers, companies can use a system called E-Verify, which is voluntary. Only about 2 percent of employers nationwide have used the system, according to the bill.

Arizona is the only state that mandates businesses use E-Verify to screen would-be employees. Some municipalities in other states also require businesses to use the system.

However, E-Verify is far from perfect. It has been criticized for providing erroneous results due to name changes, citizenship-status updates and data-entry or data-processing errors. Johnson and Giffords also said there have been cases of identity theft involving E-Verify.

The New Employee Verification Act would do away with E-Verify and replace it with the Electronic Employment Verification System that builds upon E-Verify.

Like E-Verify, the new system would be linked to the nation’s Homeland Security and Social Security databases. However, the new system would also tie into the National Directory of New Hires, a database used by states and 90 percent of U.S. employers to improve enforcement of child-support payments. We believe this is a critical improvement that would keep the database current and reduce errors in verifying employment eligibility.

The act would also give Homeland Security and Social Security more funding to improve and update their databases and verification programs.

Not surprisingly, the legislation has been criticized by immigration hawks in Arizona. They rail at the fact that the act would supercede state laws regarding employment verification.

State Sen. Russell Pearce wrote Arizona’s 15-month-old employer-sanctions law, which threatens businesses with the loss of their license for knowingly hiring undocumented workers. In discussing the federal legislation, he told Capitol Media Services last week: “These folks are so dishonest, so pro-open border, so pro-illegal alien that they ignore the damage to America. They’re doing anything they can, for whatever group is moving them, to open these borders and stop enforcement.”

It should be noted that while Arizona’s employer-sanctions law is mandatory, it has resulted in no businesses — zero — losing their licenses.

What the employer-sanctions law has done is act as a deterrent. If law-abiding business owners know they can lose their license for hiring illegal immigrants, they will probably be less likely to do so.

We’re not sure what Pearce is complaining about. The deterrent factor will remain, only it would apply to businesses nationwide that would be subjected to civil and criminal penalties if they hire illegal workers.

“Our bill would create the nation’s first mandatory employee-verification system for all U.S. employees,” Giffords said last week.

The Star reported in December that the state law has been largely unused. Ten of Arizona’s 15 counties had received one or no formal complaints and no cases resulted in Superior Court action, according to a study by Judith Gans, immigration-policy program manager at the University of Arizona’s Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy.

We’ve editorialized many times that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. The Giffords-Johnson bill puts the job of verifying employees more into federal hands, with federal enforcement provisions. We believe that’s an improvement over having myriad laws enacted by states or communities.

Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, supports the measure.

“While it is technically true that Rep. Giffords wants to end the E-Verify program, it is more accurate to say that she wants to replace it with a new paperless Electronic Employment Verification System that is tougher, fairer and that would apply to every company in the United States,” Hamer said in a letter to the Star.

“A federal program would have a more meaningful impact to curb illegal hires than ones that are imposed on a state-by-state basis.”

We still want to see comprehensive immigration reform that includes better border enforcement and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants that are making valuable contributions to society.

As part of that total package, employers should be able to verify who is eligible to work in the United States and who is not. The New Employee Verification Act would help businesses do that, not only in Arizona but across the country.