http://www.timesleader.com

Posted on Sun, Dec. 11, 2005


ILLEGAL ALIEN WORKERS
Immigration check online
Internet resource is available to area employers seeking to verify the status of their employees.

By STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@leader.net

HAZLETON – Some local manufacturing companies participate in a fairly new Internet-based program designed to weed out illegal aliens from their employee ranks; others are oblivious to the program’s existence.

The Times Leader contacted about two dozen manufacturing companies in the area to find out if their human resources staffs are aware of and/or use the employment eligibility verification system offered by Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Mayor Lou Barletta recently expressed concerns that illegal aliens living and working in the city are straining local government services.

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., he inquired about the possibility of locating a sub-office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Bureau spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said “no concrete decisions have come out of the discussions. … I don’t think there’s anything on the table for opening a sub-office (in the Hazleton area).� She said the bureau must consider its budget and the need for an office in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Regional bureau offices are located in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Fobbs provided information about the bureau’s enforcement initiatives and noted that more than 100 illegal immigrants were detained in a November raid at a Wal-Mart distribution center construction site near Pottsville in Schuylkill County. Fobbs also provided information about the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program, known as SAVE, offered by social security and immigration services.

Verifying employee eligibility

After signing up for the free program, employers can go to a Web site and enter personal information such as a Social Security number and date of birth from a new hire’s I-9 form, which is used to verify an individual’s eligibility to work in the United States.

Federal officials respond within a few days whether the worker’s credentials are OK or whether further verification action is required.

Kathy Brewster, human resources generalist for Alcoa-Kama in Hazleton, said her company uses the online program and calls it “a great idea.�

She says she is confident that all of the company’s 118 employees, a small percentage of whom are Hispanic, are here legally.

Hugh Maloney, human resources director at the Citterio, USA specialty meat plant in Freeland, said he didn’t know about the program and would like to learn more. Maloney said he diligently checks Social Security cards and other documents provided by new hires. That said, he added that two Hispanic employees came to him in the late 1990s and told him they had to leave because they were discovered at other jobs to be illegal aliens.

He estimates that about 20 percent of Citterio’s 180 union employees are “foreign-speaking.� Their ranks include a few Eastern-Europeans, one Asian and the rest Hispanic, he said.

Human resource managers from some smaller Hazleton manufacturers said they don’t participate in the program because they have only a small number of employees, most of them longtime workers.

“We haven’t had use for that,� said Lisa Vacante of CI Precision Tool, which employs about a dozen people.

Donna Forbo, human resources manager for Forbo Linoleum, said only one of the company’s 60 employees is Hispanic, and she was unaware of the online program’s existence. “But it’s a good idea,� she said.

Paul Detwiler, director of logistics for Economo Distribution Center, also said he was unaware of the program. Detwiler said all of the company’s approximately 43 employees have “active PA drivers licenses and original Social Security cards,� but he would “definitely like to find out more� about the program.

Some human resource managers suggested calling Cargill Meat Solutions in Hazleton to find out whether the company participates in the program. Cargill is a large company that reportedly employs a high percentage of Hispanics.

One manager noted that the CBS news show “60 Minutes� aired an investigative story about an illegal documentation ring operating near a Cargill plant in Schuyler, Neb., earlier this year.

Kari Hale, the Hazleton Cargill plant’s human resources manager, said the Hazleton plant has used the SAVE program to verify employment eligibility in the year that she has been there. She feels confident the company’s 850 employees -- a large percentage of which are minorities – are eligible to work.

Mayor Barletta said he was unaware of the online program, but he would support local employers using the tool.

“I feel it would benefit both the employer and the community to know if the person they are employing is a legal citizen,� he said.