Thread: Tennessee employers shun ID database

Tennessee employers shun ID database

E-Verify targets illegal workers

By JANELL ROSS • Staff Writer • January 20, 2008

When Tennessee's new law penalizing employers who knowingly hire illegal workers went into effect Jan. 1, the state gave companies a clear way to avoid the law's serious consequences: Use the E-Verify system.

Despite that incentive, the number of Tennessee employers who use the federal identity check database remains minute. Of Tennessee's 117,903 private employers, 543 have registered to use E-Verify, according to numbers released Jan. 12 by the Department of Homeland Security. That's up from 214 a year ago.

Tennessee's trend mirrors the nation's. Some analysts attribute limited participation in the E-Verify program to everything from lack of need to worries about what business owners will have to do if they discover illegal workers and fears about mistakenly turning away eligible workers.

Tim Weiler, human resources director for Alsco, an international linen supply and laundry service, is confounded. The company employs about 150 people in each of its Nashville and Memphis plants and uses E-Verify at all of its U.S. plants.

"We are sold on it," Weiler said. "We think it not only gives us confidence that we are hiring people who are legal, but it also is an easier process to use. We can't understand why everybody wouldn't do it."

E-Verify is a free, Internet-based program. Employers can learn more at www.uscis.gov/e-verify.

Some Tennessee companies may opt to have a contractor conduct the sorts of database searches that E-Verify provides, a growth industry, said Jessica Vaughan, a senior policy analyst with the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration policy and enforcement.

It is also conceivable that some businesses are not concerned illegal workers are applying and that others have no plans to hire, Vaughan said.

Yuri Cunza, president of the Nashville Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, believes E-Verify participation is limited because it isn't mandatory.

"You could compare it to that extra jacket or sweater you carry because you think it may get cold," Cunza said. "It is a valuable, optional tool. But it has to be used with thought."

The system isn't perfect. E-Verify does have some flaws. It cannot alert an employer that a Social Security number is already in use in a faraway state, a sign of a possible stolen number. Naturalized citizens are more likely than natural-born citizens to be flagged as possibly ineligible to work. Other potential triggers include name changes after a marriage or divorce.

In 2007, the Justice Department looked into three cases of alleged discriminatory hiring practices involving immigrants in the Nashville area, said Jody Bob, an agency spokeswoman. Two were dismissed and the third was dropped.

It's that sort of litigation that is on Tennessee business owners' minds. Last week, Nashville immigration lawyer Elliott Ozment fielded questions from worried business owners and hiring managers at a seminar dealing with the new law.

"We have been advised that there is a 10 to 15 percent error rate in the database that is accessed by E-Verify users," Ozment said. "If one of our clients were to dismiss an employee due to errors in the data … that person could then turn around and sue the employer under federal (anti-discrimination) law."

There is another reason some employers avoid the system, Vaughan said. "Some employers really don't want the answers it may give. "They've got illegal workers. … If an employer can say they don't know, they don't have to act."

To search a database to see which employers have registered for E-Verify, the government's worker eligibility program, click on the URL below.

E-Verify database

Contact Janell Ross at 726-5982 or jross@tennessean.com.

http://data.tennessean.com/DB/dbc/everify.php

These employers could care less about illegal immigrants or U.S. citizens. It's all about the profit, like too many elected officials.

What good is the E-verify system is there are no serious consequences for those employers who choose not to use it.

Any employer who is not using this system after 6 months should be subject to a serious fine and then jail time if they do not comply with the requirement to use E-Verify.

This system works and the employers do not like that.