City firm already in compliance with immigration order
June 10, 2008 6:00 AM
NEW BEDFORD — The company that purchased the Michael Bianco Inc. military bag factory after an immigration raid netted more than 350 illegal workers is a step ahead of the Bush administration, which issued an executive order Monday requiring all federal contractors to verify their employees' legal status.

Eagle Industries, the Missouri-based military equipment manufacturer that now owns the factory, has voluntarily checked its new employees to ensure they are authorized to work in the United States, said company spokeswoman Alissa Southworth.

The company will not have to make any changes to comply with the new order, she added.

President Bush's order — signed Friday and announced Monday — requires federal contractors to use an electronic employment eligibility verification system, known as E-Verify, to check the status of new hires.

Immigration advocates have criticized E-Verify for being inaccurate and containing millions of errors that could cause many legal immigrant workers and U.S. citizens to show up in the system as unauthorized workers. Fixing those errors will prove costly to employers and the economy, they said.

Eagle, which operates three manufacturing facilities in Missouri, has participated in the E-Verify pilot program for about three to four years, Ms. Southworth said.

The free, Web-based system allowed for a "very smooth transition" after Eagle took ownership of the Bianco plant in November, she said. The company has since hired 113 new employees whose legal status was confirmed through E-Verify, she said.

The system is jointly operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

Employers enter an employee's Social Security number, date of birth, citizenship status and other information from employment forms into E-Verify, which immediately checks to see if it matches with government records from Department of Homeland Security immigration and Social Security Administration databases.

According to Homeland Security, employers must give employees who receive an information mismatch eight federal government work days to contact the appropriate federal agency if they want to contest the mismatch, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

"This order is designed to promote economy and efficiency in federal government procurement," President Bush wrote in the executive order. "Stability and dependability are important elements of economy and efficiency. "¦ Contractors that employ illegal aliens cannot rely on the continuing availability and service of those illegal workers, and such contractors inevitably will have a less stable and less dependable work force than contractors that do not employ such persons."

The executive order is the first time the federal government has mandated use of E-Verify outside of its own hiring practices. Several states, meanwhile, have passed laws or executive orders requiring the use of E-Verify to varying degrees. For example, an Arizona law requires all businesses to use E-Verify, while an executive order by Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri requires state agencies and firms doing business with the state to verify the legal status of employees.

Immigration advocates decried the executive order, saying it was purely a political move by the Bush administration.

"This is a classic bait and switch," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. "The administration was getting pressure about the way it's been treating detainees and it decided to distract the public."

"The president is bypassing Congress, and I don't think it's a good idea," said Eva Millona, acting executive director for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "Congress needs to act in a comprehensive way and resolve the whole broken (immigration) system."

The advocates warned that the system lends itself to discrimination of immigrant workers.

"At end of day, a person who looks or sounds like an immigrant and applies for a job is going to be held to a much higher standard than someone who does not," Mr. Noorani said.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 69,000 employers are currently using E-Verify to check the status of their employees. In fiscal 2008, employers have so far run more than 4 million employment verification queries. Of those queries, 99.5 percent of qualified employees were cleared automatically by the system, according to the agency.

The Bianco plant was rushing to fill two Army contracts for military backpacks and vest systems when federal agents swooped into the factory on March 6, 2007, and arrested 361 illegal workers, mainly women from Central America.

The two Army contracts remain a top priority for Eagle, Ms. Southworth said. In the meantime, the company is "actively pursuing new business in a very competitive market," she said.

Most of the company's new employees work as sewing machine operators, though 10 workers were hired for quality control and maintenance positions, she said.

In addition to using E-Verify, Eagle has tried to make the factory "a compelling place to work" by increasing wages, adding a 401(k) plan and improving working conditions by adding new lighting and ergonomically correct chairs, she said.

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