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Illinois Governor Butts Heads with Department of Homeland Security

November 27th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

A controversial new law in Illinois would make it illegal for employers to voluntarily use federal employment verification software effective January 1, 2008.

Any Illinois employer who does wish to use the Department of Homeland Security E-verify software should sign up before that date.

If enacted, this law could make Illinois a haven for undocumented workers and a potential terrorist target. Some observers worry that it increases the risk of a terrorist attack at Chicago’s Sears Tower, the nation’s tallest building.

Governor Rod Blagojevich signed an amendment to the state Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act on August 13, 2007. The law prohibits Illinois employers form enrolling in an employment eligibility verification system (EEVS) in its current form.

E-verify, the EEVS software introduced by the Department of Homeland security, has been available to employers since 1997.

In the past many employers have used the EEVS system to verify that employees can legally work in the U.S. The system helps eliminate potential identity theft and serves as an affirmative defense against charges of willfully hiring illegal immigrants under federal law.

The EEVS system double-checks an employee’s social security number, full name, date of birth, and sex with the records of the Social Security Administration (or SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security. This system eliminates the use of 90% of forged Social Security cards and other workplace documents such as green cards.

Employers who submit information normally receive confirmation of the employee’s legal right to work within 24 hours. If the information supplied by the employee doesn’t match the SSA records, the employer receives a tentative non-confirmation notice. The tentative notice may be contested by the employee. If the notice is not contested or resolved within 10 days, E-verify issues a final non-confirmation notice. This final notice may take up to 30 days to issue.

More than 99% of tentative non-confirmation notices are legitimate warnings that a worker is using forged documents, or has engaged in identity theft. In a very few cases, however, the E-verify records may be incorrect. The database might omit a middle initial, or have two numbers in an individual social security number transposed. In those cases, an individual who can legally work in the U.S. would receive a tentative non-confirmation notice and need to contest it within 10 days.

Workers who receive a tentative non-confirmation notice must legally remain employed until the final notice is received. At that point, the employer must terminate the worker or inform the Department of Homeland Security that it intends to continue to employ the person.

Under the new program, no employer could legally enroll voluntarily in the EEVS system until the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are able to make determinations on final non-confirmation notices within 3 days.

The law preempts all local laws that require employers to use an EEVS system.

Some employers are required by federal law to use E-verify. These include businesses that have been fined repeatedly for hiring illegal immigrants, and some federal contractors. These companies would be exempt under the new state law.

In addition, employers enrolled in EEVS would have to undertake expensive training for any employee who uses the system. The employer would also have to post notices that E-Verify is in use so all applicants could see them, and provide employees with counseling on how to handle tentative non-conformation notices.

Opponents of the bill point out that there is no evidence that anyone legally entitled to work in the U.S. has lost his or her job, or been deprived of work, under the current system. They argue that the potential benefits for counter-terrorism outweigh the miniscule number of workers who are inconvenienced by the federal EEVS system.