Delaware Employment Law Blog

From the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), comes a new published Guidance relating to the use of E-Verify.  The recent, though short-lived excitement over the use of E-Verify for employment verification has now quieted down. Private-sector employees are back to the voluntary use of the system as a method for confirming that newly hired employees are authorized to work in the country.  

One of the concerns that was raised with the E-Verify program was its potential effect on discrimination in the workplace.  If, as a result of using E-Verify, an employer receives a no-match letter or a “tentative” no-match letter, he cannot terminate the employee without first trying to resolve the mismatch.  Failure to work with the employee to determine the cause of the mismatch could result in a claim for national-origin discrimination.

Anticipating the likelihood that employers would not want to engage in the additional steps of “working with the employee,” the DOJ issued guidelines outlining the step that an employer must take upon receiving information about a potential mismatch.  (See Antidiscrimination Guidance Concerning the DHS No-Match Rule).

See also:  E-Verify Employer Dos & Don'ts

William W. Bowser and Molly DiBianca (that's me!) presented to the Delaware Contractors' Association's HR Committee today.  We spoke about the Employers' Free Choice Act, the RESPECT Act, the Delaware Construction Industry Independent Contractors' Act, E-Verify, and the recent FMLA amendment, the National Defense Authorization Act.  As promised, I'll post a link to the slides and the handouts for members of the DCA and anyone else who may be interested to view and download. 

Thanks to all of the attendees for participating.  The Human Resources Group, not surprisingly, was attentive, insightful and inquisitive with lots of great questions and comments.  Of the various topics discussed, though, it was clear that E-Verify was the show-stealer.  This, I think, is especially interesting, given that none of the participants are covered by the President's recent executive order, which made use of the E-Verify program mandatory for federal contractors.  The reaction tells me that the construction industry is either (1) looking forward to utilizing the electronic verification system; (2) dreading it as a worst-case scenario; or (3) are curious about just what E-Verify really is and how they might potentially be affected. 

So, in follow-up, here are some helpful "Dos" and "Don'ts" for using E-Verify, published by the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices ("OSC"):

*available at usdoj.gov/crt/osc

And don't forget to check back tomorrow for the PowerPoint slides and handouts.

Prior Related Posts about E-Verify: 

Attention Government Contractors!! You Are Being Ordered to Use E-Verify!

GAO Says Universal Mandatory E-Verify Will Be A Challenge

Federal contractors are now required to use E-Verify, an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) & the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees.  E-Verify is a free and, until last week, voluntary way to determine the employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security Numbers.

On Friday, June 6, 2008, President Bush signed an executive order amending Executive Order 12989, which is entitled “Economy And Efficiency In Government Procurement Through Compliance With Certain Immigration And Naturalization Act Provisions.”  Sounds important, right? This is in fact very big news for government contractors, who must now revamp another part of their hiring process to ensure that they don’t lose their contracts.

The original Executive Order 12989, "Economy & Efficiency in Government Procurement Through Compliance with Certain Immigration & Naturalization Act Provisions", was signed by President Clinton on February 13, 1996.  It stated that if a government contractor violated the Immigration and Naturalization Act’s prohibition on hiring illegal or undocumented aliens, the contractor could be “debarred.”  Debarment means that the contractor loses its current government contract and is shut out from future contracts for the duration of the debarment period.

The amended E.O. 12989 goes a step further, requiring all government contractors to use the DHS electronic verification system (currently known as “E-Verify”)  to ensure that “all persons hired during the contract term by the contractor to perform employment duties within the United States” are authorized to work in the United States. This requirement apparently extends to all newly hired employees, not just employees hired to work on the government contract. In addition, the Executive Order requires the contractor to use an electronic verification system to verify the employment eligibility of “all persons assigned by the contractor to perform work in the United States.”

The Order instructs the Secretary of Homeland Security to “modify as necessary and appropriate the electronic employment eligibility verification system....” On June 9, 2008, DHS announced that E-Verify is the system designated for use by federal contractors for compliance with E.O. 12989.  According to DHS, “Agencies responsible for federal acquisition regulations (FAR) will send a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to the Federal Register today soliciting public comment on proposed changes to these regulations. Comments will be accepted for 60 days.”

DHS also assured employers that using E-Verify will not be too painful: “More than 69,000 employers currently rely on E-Verify to determine that their new hires are authorized to work in the United States. Employers have run more than 4 million employment verification queries so far in fiscal year 2008. Of those queries, 99.5 percent of qualified employees are cleared automatically by E-Verify.” E-Verify is a free service that, according to DHS, usually verifies an employee’s work authorization in seconds.

As the DHS E-Verify System is currently designed, it may be used only for newly hired employees but legislation introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley on June 5, 2008, would expand the program to cover current employees also.  You can read more about the E-Verify System on the DHS website as well as in prior posts on this blog.

Contractors must still take care to avoid discriminating against applicants and employees who are simply suspected of being undocumented workers. As Procurement Executive Janice Sposato pointed out in April 1997 after the promulgation of the original E.O. 12989, there are various laws that prohibit discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin discrimination. Accordingly, contractors may not “single out or otherwise treat individuals differently because they are foreign born, ‘foreign-looking,’ have ‘foreign sounding names,’ or have accents. All individuals must be treated in the same way during the part of the hiring process in which work authorization documentation must be provided and inspected.

Related E-Verify & Immigration Law Posts:

Getting the Jump on No-Match Letters and Suspicious Document Notices

Safe-Harbor Rule for No-Match Letters: Part 1

Safe-Harbor Rule for No-Match Letters: Part 2

Safe-Harbor Rule for No-Match Letters: Part 3