Thread: IL-Fired Hotel Workers Challenge E-Verify Use

Fired Hotel Workers Challenge E-Verify Use

WBEZ - Chicago Public Radio
Produced by Chip Mitchell
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Immigrants fired by two suburban Chicago businesses are testing an Illinois law that sets the nation’s toughest limits on verifying eligibility for employment.

Systems like E-Verify tap companies into federal databases to check an employee’s eligibility to work in the United States. The systems have become key immigration-enforcement tools during President Barack Obama’s administration.

But some business groups and labor unions say the results are inaccurate too often.

Six Latin American immigrants Tuesday afternoon filed the first complaints under a new Illinois law that restricts the verification to new hires only. One of the six worked in Bolingbrook for a staffing firm until September.

The others, all women, worked at a Red Roof Inn in Hoffman Estates until this spring. They include MarÃ*a Cervantes, a single mother of four in Carpentersville.

CISNEROS: Ya después de años...

After years on the job, Cervantes says, it’s not fair.

A Red Roof Inn statement accuses the workers of providing false Social Security numbers and says this justified their dismissal. The Ohio-based hotel chain says it requires all employees to sign a consent form allowing background checks.

The workers’ attorney, Christopher Williams, counters that employee consent is no justification for a company to violate the law.

http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=37566

That seems to be a standard answer - "it's not f-a-a-i-r"