Thread: Employers want faster verification system for workers

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Employers want faster verification system for workers


By Anabelle Garay
ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:14 p.m. July 31, 2006

PLANO, Texas – Lawmakers who want to verify electronically whether job applicants can legally work in this country must design a system that is quick and accurate, employers said during an immigration and border security hearing Monday.
A verification program currently used by some businesses has an error rate estimated as high as 20 percent and sometimes take more than 10 days to respond, employers told a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

“We need to speed up the process,” said Abel Martinez, vice president of risk management and compliance at San Antonio-based H-E-B Grocery Co.

Many business have declined to participate in the voluntary program. It tries to verify employees' Social Security numbers and check them against other federal databases. But employers say the government databases contain misspellings, have last names entered as middle names and struggle to keep name and status changes updated.

Lawmakers aimed to detect document fraud by applicants and deter employers from seeking out illegal workers by going beyond the current system. In their competing bills, the House and the Senate included requirements for U.S. employers to check the legal status of workers through an electronic employment eligibility verification program.

The new system could extend to more than 7 million employers and up to 140 million employees.

Experts warn employer sanctions don't necessarily deter unscrupulous employers from circumventing the rules. It actually increased the number of employers hiring workers off-the-books, classifying them as independent contractors or hiring middlemen, said Bill Beardall, an attorney testifying on behalf of the Equal Justice Center and the National Immigration Law Center.

“There are employer that seek out undocumented immigrant workers and exploit them,” he said. “There are those who know they rely on undocumented workers and look the other way.”

Dozens of audience members booed when Beardall said employer sanctions need to go along with legalizing illegal workers and enforcing labor protections for all people, regardless of their immigration status.

More than 100 people attended the hearing in Plano, an affluent and rapidly growing suburb just north of Dallas. Held at City Hall, it was a few miles from a day-labor site where contractors frequently stop to pickup workers for construction, gardening and other jobs. Many held signs reading “Secure Borders,” or “No Amnesty.”

“Assimilate, don't come here to bring Guatemala with you. Don't come here to bring Honduras with you,” said Cherie Willkinson, a Wylie resident who brought her two daughters to the hearing. “That's what making Americans so angry.”

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Emotions are strong at hearing

Verification system on illegal immigrants criticized in Plano


12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 1, 2006

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News

PLANO – A U.S. House hearing on illegal immigrants and the bosses who employ them was marked Monday by both applause and hisses from an audience as polarized as Congress.

But there was one point of agreement among those invited to testify before the subcommittee: A voluntary system to verify Social Security numbers is error-ridden

The hearing, headed by Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Plano, at Plano City Hall, was packed with anti-immigrant activists carrying "Secure Borders" signs. But it also included immigrant supporters and diplomats from the Mexican government.

It was one of more than a dozen such events held around the nation by the House and the Senate. Some view the hearings as a delay tactic by politicians unwilling to compromise on an overhaul of the nation's immigration system before the November elections.

The House passed an enforcement-only bill in December. And this spring, the Senate passed a bill with both enforcement and legalization components. President Bush favors a measure that includes a guest worker program.

The Plano hearing was tightly focused on the employment verification system and proposals to retool it. The subcommittee on Employer and Employee Relations heard testimony from five employers and employment specialists.

Authorities are placing increased scrutiny on the fake document industry that has flourished since 1986, the year of the last sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration system.

A free, voluntary program called Basic Pilot now allows employers to check Social Security numbers and names with the government's databases. But only about 10,000 of the nation's employers are enrolled.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced an effort to get more employers to participate.

"The error rate under Basic Pilot is very high – regardless of who you talk to," testified Abel Martinez, a lawyer and vice president at San Antonio-based H.E. Butt Grocery Co., which operates the H-E-B and Central Market chains.

Some studies have shown that 10 percent to 20 percent of entries can't be initially verified, he said. He cited another study that showed that as many as a third of Social Security numbers for foreign-born workers come back with problems.

About 5 percent of the nation's workforce is estimated to be here illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Social Security officials have noted that numbers sometimes aren't entered properly and surnames change due to divorce, marriage or confusion over the Latin tradition of using two surnames.

Jon L. Luther, chief executive of Dunkin' Brands Inc. of Canton, Mass., testified that the Basic Pilot databases can generate errors. But he said mismatches on numbers and names get cleared up quickly.

Dunkin' Brands requires all franchisees to use Basic Pilot, Mr. Luther said. It franchises the Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin-Robbins and Togo's restaurants brands.

Although Mr. Luther was complimentary of the Department of Homeland Security and its enforcement strategy with Basic Pilot, he added, "Enforcement-only isn't going to work."

Bill Beardall, executive director of the Austin-based Equal Justice Center, testified that documented and undocumented workers have employment rights and protections.

That brought an outburst of "No, no, no" from the audience.

Even before the hearing began, the audience was quick to respond.

That prompted Mr. Johnson – who is up for re-election and whose Democratic opponent, Dan Dodd, was in the audience – to tell the gathering: "Any emotion such as clapping is not allowed in the House. I am going to allow it here."

Cherie Wilkinson, who carried a placard reading "No amnesty," said she would have preferred time at the microphone, too. Illegal immigrants are reducing U.S. living standards, the Wylie homemaker said after the hearing. Employers who hire them get a slap on the wrist, she added.

Mexican diplomats sat quietly at the hearing. The country has much at stake: Mexican immigrants sent home about $20 billion in U.S. earnings in 2005, and that could climb to $25 billion in 2006.

After the hearing, Mexican Deputy Consul Hugo Juárez said he hoped for approval of the Kennedy-McCain bill in the Senate, which has more generous provisions for some of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Staff writer Isabel Morales of Al Día contributed to this report.

E-mail dsolis@dallasnews.com