County aims to reduce hiring of undocumented immigrants
by Nicole Strep
Friday, May 14, 2010

Whatcom County may use an online system to ensure newly hired government workers are eligible for employment.

After a year of researching E-Verify, a federal system that verifies workers’ documents, the county has decided to add the system to the screening process that is already in place for new county employees, said Tawni Helms, Whatcom County’s administrative supervisor for the Executive’s office.

The new system is a free and is only required for companies with federal contracts, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Whatcom County is not required to use this program because the county usually receives grants and not federal funding, Helms said.

In 1996, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was absorbed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, created three programs to test the best way to verify an employee’s eligibility to work. These programs combined to become the Basic Pilot program, which was the precursor to today’s E-Verify system.

The act requires employers to examine new employees’ documents to ensure that they are legally able to work in the United States.

Employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants can be fined as much as $2,000 per undocumented worker, according to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

The system uses the information reported on the I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to check an employee’s eligibility to work in the United States, according to the Homeland Security website.

By law, employers can use the E-Verify program for new employees, but not existing employees, Helms said.

Helms said using the program is like double-checking what the county already does to ensure that employees are legally allowed to work in the United States.

“[It’s] nothing beyond what we already do,â€