Thread: Va. agencies do little to monitor whether they hire illegal

Va. agencies do little to monitor whether they hire illegal immigrants

By Tyler Whitley
Published: June 14, 2011


Most state agencies do little to monitor whether they are hiring illegal immigrants, a study by the legislature's watchdog agency concluded Monday.

Justin Brown, an analyst for the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, told the panel's members Monday that only one state agency reported being informed of a potential violation during the past five years.

The Department of General Services was informed of a potential violation in the community college system, Brown said. He did not know what became of that, he added.

Brown said state agencies feel that enforcement of the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act is primarily a federal responsibility. That act, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, includes sanctions for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.

Agencies think compliance in state contracting — for example, in construction work or state technology — is the responsibility of the contractor and that it would be too expensive for agencies to monitor compliance, Brown said.

While not looking for violations, the state agencies incorporate terms and conditions against hiring illegal immigrants into their contracts, he said. The Virginia Public Procurement Act has stipulated since 2008 that no state contractor should knowingly employ an unauthorized immigrant.

Because Brown was just asked to study procedures state agencies use to verify the legal status of their employees, he offered no examples of how many contractual employees might be illegal.

The JLARC study cited a Pew Hispanic Center estimate that about 160,000 unauthorized workers might be in Virginia. Pew did not estimate how many might be working for the state or its contractors.

Procurement officials Brown interviewed were unaware of any instance in which the state had terminated a contract or sought damages because of a violation.

There are three exceptions among state agencies that check the credentials of their employees, he added. These are the Virginia Port Authority, Department of Aviation and Department of Corrections.

Beginning June 1, the state was required to use the federal E-Verify system, a free, Internet-based system employers can use to determine whether a new hire is authorized to work in the U.S.

Beginning in 2013, state contracts of $50,000 or more, or that employ 50 or more people, also must use the E-verify system under legislation passed by the 2011 General Assembly.

Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, told the commission that when he sought to compel employers to use the E-Verify system last year, the "business community freaked out," saying it would be too expensive. He said an expert demonstrated the system in his office and it only took two minutes to verify someone's status.

He has reached an informal agreement with the business community that if it proves too expensive, he won't push it; if it is not, the business community will drop its opposition, Albo said.

www2.timesdispatch.com

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