Feds' Program Targets Illegally Employed Immigrants
Database Screens Employee's Information

POSTED: 4:03 pm EDT March 19, 2008
UPDATED: 5:59 pm EDT March 19, 2008


GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A federal program aimed at making sure U.S. employers have a legal workforce is drawing interest from hundreds of South Carolina companies.

The Department of Homeland Security says its e-Verify program is not intended to be a method for catching illegal immigrants, but it is a way to ensure that they will not get jobs.

The program allows employers to use a federal database to make sure that potential employees have immigration status that makes it legal for them to work.


Employers use an Internet-based system to enter a potential employee's information and see if it matches the person who is applying for the job.

The verification can be completed in as little as a few seconds.

"The Department of Homeland Security believes that e-Verify is the best means available for verifying your new hires to help make sure you don't have an unauthorized workforce," Department of Homeland Security spokewoman Katherine Lotspeich said.

About two dozen employers and attorneys showed up for a seminar in downtown Atlanta this week to learn more about the system.

Not all were convinced it will be a complete solution.

"There's multiple potential for error there, with training issues that you have to go through," staffing industry worker Mike Emanuele said.

A potential employee's information might not check out if there are typographical errors or a name changes that is not reflected in the database.

In the case of an incomplete check or a rejection, the system lets employers know if the problem lies with the Social Security Administration or with immigration.

An employee can be granted a temporary non-compliant authorization and then has eight days to contest the issue.

If it is not resolved, the employee can be fired.

The system helps employers make determination about the immigration status of potential workers, but does not shield them from potential legal action.

"It does not prevent lawsuits filed by workers who are inadvertently or wrongfully terminated," attorney Eileen Scofield said.

Lotspeich said that the system is not to be used for immigration enforcement, only to verify employment eligibility.

"That's not our role. Our role is employment verification," she said.

As of Tuesday, 463 South Carolina employers had signed up for e-Verify, among them Carter and Crawley of Greenville, which makes electrical panel components.

"We don't want to refuse anyone the right to work, but we do want to find the best candidates," Carter and Crawley Human Resource Manager Martha Stewart said.

The company began using the e-Verify system in February as part of its hiring process.

"Sometimes you may take a look at a person's (records) and make a determination on whether they have a right to work or not," Stewart said. "But with e-Verify then all of that guesswork is gone out of it."

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