No jobs, no more illegals?
December 18, 2007
By NICOLE BROOKS and Steven Ross Johnson Staff Writers

ELGIN, IL -- For many anti-illegal immigration advocates, taking away illegal immigrants' ability to get a job in the United States is the key to stopping the rise in that population.

One measure, mandatory Social Security verification -- proposed by local anti-illegal immigration group Association for Legal Americans -- would, they claim, do just that.

City officials said it is their policy to verify applicants' numbers via the federal I-9 form when they are applying for a city job. But not all businesses and companies are required to verify Social Security numbers.

The federal government's E-Verify program, formerly known as the Basic Pilot Program, aims to make verification of newly hired employees' Social Security numbers simple and quick.

Local anti-illegal immigration advocates and some city councilmen are in favor of using E-Verify. The free and voluntary Web-based system allows employers to tap into Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security databases to verify an individual's work status.

However, a state law passed in August and set to go into effect Jan. 1 forbids use of the federal program.

House Bill 1744 prohibits employers from enrolling in the program until its rate of accuracy increases to 99 percent.

The Department of Homeland Security subsequently filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Springfield against the state of Illinois.

Information lacking

But the lawsuit may be moot, as at least one state legislator has changed her mind about HB 1744 upon further research.

"What little debate there was on the floor talked about a merging of databases," state Rep. Ruth Munson, R-Elgin, said Monday. The phrase "Basic Pilot Program" and not "E-Verify" was used when the bill was introduced and debated, she said, and she never realized the state bill aimed to trump federal law.

"I did not know that this was part of federal Homeland Security. Nobody put that together. It wasn't even part of the debate on the floor."

Munson said she can't speak for other state legislators, but based on the conversations she's had, she believes others suffered from the same omission of facts.

"I would hazard to say that's the case. Other people that I've spoken to -- the Basic Pilot Program was the whole discussion."

Support for repeal

The lawsuit was, for many, the wake-up call for legislators, she said.

"I think that's when most people were made aware," Munson said, noting she found out what HB 1744 really accomplished when a reporter from The Courier News called her for comment.

Based on the information she now has, Munson said she will back a repeal bill that she believes will be one of the first introduced when the General Assembly session begins Jan. 8.

"I'm going to support the federal government on this issue."

Munson noted that she supports the rationale behind the passed bill.

"Simple name changes would often cause problems. It caused a great deal of concern to people who were able to work but had lost their jobs because (of the inaccuracy of E-Verify).

"Making sure it was accurate didn't seem like a bad idea to me."

Accuracy concern

Another "yes" vote for HB 1744 came from state Sen. Michael Noland, D-Elgin, who said the level of accuracy he found with the government system nationwide, which he estimated to be around 80 percent, was unacceptable.

He said he based his findings on various sources, which included "anecdotal information from colleagues" and several journals he read on the subject.

"What ends up happening is that many of the people whose backgrounds are being checked are being misidentified as either being undocumented or not having the proper documentation, when in fact they do," he said. "That's preventing a nexus between employer and employee, and that's chilling upon an economy."

Noland said he understood no system could offer 100 percent accuracy and that he was open to reconsidering his vote once an acceptable level of error was achieved, although he could not say what that level was at this time.

"We do need to get to a point where we are able to somehow verify appropriate qualifications for employment in the United States," he said. "I'm listening to both sides on this, but currently I'm taking a safe approach and being cautious as far as excluding people from possible employment and employers from filling positions."

And this bill is about employment, not illegal immigration, according to its lead author, state Rep. Cynthia Soto, D-Chicago.

"This is a labor bill. And this is for citizens, people who have the right to work here."

E-Verify would too often reject legally employable people, she said.

Soto said she is communicating with Homeland Security officials to change some of the bill's language in an effort to resolve the lawsuit.

Sole opponent

Marilu Cabrera, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees E-Verify, said Illinois is the only state that has drafted legislation blasting the program.

"Other states are pushing for it."

Cabrera said the program is continuously being refined.

According to a September USCIS report on the program's progress, the accuracy of E-Verify "has improved substantially since the start of the Basic Pilot Program," from a rating of 79 percent in 1999 to 92 percent in March 2007 for "all cases verified automatically."

Further improvements are needed for the program to be a mandate, the report states.

"I don't know if and when Congress will decide to mandate it," Cabrera said. "It certainly looks like that's where they're headed."

As of Sunday, Cabrera said, 2,943 Illinois sites were enrolled in E-Verify. There are 145,120 sites enrolled nationwide.
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