Some businesses say they don't use e-Verify to check workers

By VICTORIA MACCHI
Naples Daily NewsPosted February 6, 2013 at 5 a.m.


When an Immokalee man hurt himself working for a construction company last fall, he did what employees injured on the job do. He filed for workers' compensation.

Then the 25-year-old was arrested.

Accused of identity fraud, Adelso Chavez used a Social Security card that wasn't his to get the job, state investigators allege. There's a voluntary verification system to deter such problems when hiring immigrant workers, but private Florida businesses aren't required to use it, and federal records show the construction company that hired Chavez didn't participate in the free nationwide program, known as e-Verify.

In fact, several businesses that on paper are enrolled in e-Verify told the Daily News that in practice they don't use the online system, which checks a current or potential employee's ID information and alerts employers if they are unauthorized to work in the U.S.

In immigration reform plans announced last week, a group of U.S. senators and President Barack Obama insisted on expanded and obligatory checks on employee legal status. Hiring undocumented workers is against federal law, and punishable by a fine.

At Palm River Electric in North Naples, Vice President Jim Vaux said the company had to agree to enroll in e-Verify as part of a contract with a recycling agency two years ago. But they weren't required to use it, just prove they signed up for the system, which is run through the Department of Homeland Security.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order in 2011 requiring state agencies and their contractors to use e-Verify when hiring. Federal contracts also require it.
"We were kind of strong-armed into it, in the terms of the contract," Vaux said.

Since then, there's been no need to check on new employees, because there aren't any.

"It's just been that slow. We really haven't hired any new people," he explained.
Roughly 300 businesses and agencies are enrolled in Collier County, compared with about 430 in Lee County.

Though a federal database doesn't break the companies down by industry, locally the majority are in industries related to construction and hospitality — general contractors, five-star hotels, restaurants. Health-care providers, nursing homes and technology firms are also on the list, while agriculture-based businesses are largely absent.

But being enrolled doesn't mean using the system, which requires an employer to input among other data an applicant's biographical information and a Social Security number. In some cases, photo comparisons are available to match the image on an ID card to that in the federal database.

Andrew Marinaro, manager at Fifth Avenue South chocolate shop Kilwin's of Naples, handles hiring for the company, which currently employs 17 people.

"We have several foreigners who work for us, a couple of Albanians, a couple of Russians. We ask and hope they are honest with us," Marinaro said.

In the business's 11 years, he hasn't encountered trouble in the way they run hiring. A payroll company checks on Social Security information, and the forms for taxes. Even though Kilwin's is technically enrolled in e-Verify, the company doesn't use it, according to Marinaro.

"We've never once had that problem," he said of employing unauthorized workers.

A company can be fined if they do, but that's not enough, said Rosemary Jenks of NumbersUSA, an immigration-reduction organization that advocates for expanded and mandatory use of e-Verify across the U.S., like Arizona and South Carolina already have.

"The employers start to consider the fines as the cost of doing business," Jenks said.

The Daily News received no response to requests for comment from the company that employed Chavez before his arrest, or from the state agency that lodged the complaint against him. He does face five years in prison on the fraud charge, and ultimately deportation proceedings.

In 2011, about 300,000 employers across the U.S. were enrolled in e-Verify, leading to 17.4 million cases checked through the system.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that oversees the program, knows of its limitations because it's only required in a few states, and partially used in others.

The majority of nonusers explained in a Homeland Security report released in 2011 that they didn't see a benefit to using it, thought it would be too costly or time-consuming, or that using it would be "difficult or disruptive."

Kilwin's owner Sue Marinaro enrolled the company a few years ago, thinking it would be helpful to prove employee eligibility, but wasn't much of a help.

"Most of our staff comes from local high school kids entering the workforce for the first time. Everyone also needs to prove to us with documents such as driver's licenses, passports, birth certificates, green cards or Social Security cards that they are who they say they are," she explained.

"I know the program was set up to assist us in finding out if these documents are legitimate but we kind of go on a gut feeling as well as English abilities."

New plans for immigration reform revealed last week, first by a group of U.S. senators, then separately by the president, call for an expanded and mandatory verification system, phased in over five years, according to the White House version, with extensions for small businesses.

"It won't be a quick process, but it will be a fair process," Obama said this past Tuesday in a speech to announce his reforms.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2013/feb/06/some-businesses-say-they-dont-use-e-verify-to/