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Another for immigrants
Federal program lets employers verify status online


By LISA ARSENAULT
Monitor staff


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June 04. 2006 10:00AM


Workers who are hired at Dunkin' Donuts stores from now on will undergo increased federal immigration status checks, which some immigrant rights groups say are unfair and inaccurate.

Dunkin' Donuts is one of 21 companies in the state using a voluntary federal pilot program that allows employers to check the immigration status of all new hires through Social Security and Homeland Security databases.

New hires have always been required to show proof that they are eligible to work in the United States. The Basic Pilot Program allows the employer to then enter the information into an online system to verify it.

Because businesses face penalties for hiring undocumented workers -either knowingly or because they were given false identification - the databases are a good way for employers to double-check, said Shawn Saucier, spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"This is a tool that allows employers to make absolutely sure they're following the law by hiring only people who are legally allowed to work in the United States," Saucier said.

But immigrants rights groups in New Hampshire and other states say the program raises concerns about discrimination because the databases may contain errors and employers can misuse the system.
"Without any enforcement mechanism, there's no way to keep employers following the rules," said Tyler Moran, a policy analyst for the National Immigration Law Center.

Congress commissioned two independent studies of the program before it went nationwide in 2003; they found glitches, according to the National Immigration Law Center. The databases were not always up to date, some employers were not following the rules, and the program was not ready for wide-scale mandatory use, the studies found.

The studies found that the program increases discrimination against people who look or sound foreign, Moran said. For example, she said, employees who were not immediately found in the database were unfairly subject to pay cuts, delayed training and other work restrictions.

Saucier says there is no evidence the program is unfair or inaccurate. More than 900,000 inquiries have been made to the system since 1997. In that time, Saucier said, an immigrant qualified to work in the United States has never been denied a job because of a database error.

He said the system has safeguards in place to make sure that doesn't happen. If an employee's name doesn't come up in the database, the information is investigated by a government worker, and if the status is still found to be questionable, the employee is given the opportunity to submit his or her own proof. Saucier also said employers are regularly checked up on by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to make sure they aren't abusing the system.

The program, which is free and open to any employer, was first approved by Congress in 1996 to test whether electronic employment authorization would work. The program was first available in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas and Nebraska, and it was extended to the rest of the states in 2003. It will end in 2008 unless it is made permanent by immigration reform laws that are now being debated by Congress.

Employers enter new hires'work authorization, such as visa or green card information, into the system. A computer program then searches for the employee's name in federal databases to verify his or her status. If the his or name does not show up, the employer is notified, and the case is forwarded to a compliance officer, who checks the person's immigration file. The employer is not allowed to fire someone until the final notification is given.

Employers must formally agree not to use the system to check the status of existing employees or to prescreen potential employees. They also must promise to do the checks within three days of hiring.

Dunkin' Donuts officials said they decided to participate because screening new hires is a difficult process, and using the databases eliminates the guesswork.

"We see it as a way to help our franchises comply with the laws when the authenticity of their new hires' credentials are difficult to discern," said Stephen Horn, chief legal officer for Dunkin' Donuts.

All of the Dunkin' brands -including Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin-Robbins and Togo's restaurants -started using the pilot program June 1. In New Hampshire, that included roughly 200 locations.

The federal government will not say which companies have signed on to the program. The participating New Hampshire companies did not want to be named, Saucier said.

Employers are required to post a sign telling workers the company is participating in the program, but those signs do not have to be made visible to customers, Saucier said. They are often placed in the room where job interviews are conducted, he said.

State Labor Commissioner George Copadis, said it is difficult to estimate how many undocumented workers there are. In 2005, the state cited 38 businesses for employing undocumented workers, he said. Violators are fined up to $1,000 a day.

Judy Elliott of the New Hampshire Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health said she has not heard of any local cases in which an immigrant was unfairly denied a job because of the pilot program. She said state immigrant rights groups are keeping an eye on the situation, however.

"This is pretty discriminatory in its impact, if not in its intent," she said.

She said immigrant workers who lose out on a job because of a database error may not speak out.

Lily Mesa of the New Hampshire Immigrants Rights Task Force said she doesn't think using the online databases is a bad idea, but it will not solve the country's immigration problem.

"People are still going to find places to work," she said. "They will do anything, and they're not going to leave. They can do this program if they don't come up with fair immigration reform for everybody. It's not going to solve everything."

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By LISA ARSENAULT

Monitor staff