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Is Mandatory E-Verify on the Horizon?
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</h3><h4><i>by <a href=”http://discuss.ilw.com/content.php?7114-Article-Private-Refugee-Sponsorship-Gains-Crucial-New-Support-by-Matthew-La-Corte#bio”>
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Jennifer Pawlak
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<p>Date: July 25</p>
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<p>
In the greater discussion of the benefits or pitfalls of E-Verify,
the elephant in the room is our economy’s reliance on undocumented
workers. Regardless of your opinion on the subject, everyone knows
that there are unauthorized workers working on farms and
construction sites, in hotels and restaurants, and many other
places. As (I hope) you know, the I-9 was established in 1986 by
the Immigration Reform and Control Act to stop the employment of
unauthorized workers and penalize employers for same. A few decades
later, E-Verify was established as an add-on to make it easier for
U.S. employers to nearly instantly confirm that they are hiring
authorized workers. And yet, an estimated 7.6 million unauthorized
immigrants are working in the U.S. (
<a
href=”https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/ft_19-06-17_keyfindingsimmigrants_update_total-us-labor-force-grows-2007-number-unauthorized-immigrant-workers-declines/”
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as of 2017, according to Pew Research
</a>
).
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You may recall from
<a
href=”https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/e-verify-one-step-time-jennifer-pawlak/”
>
my first post on the topic
</a>
that E-Verify is largely voluntary. Some states and municipalities
require it for all employers, and it is required for all federal
contractors. But that’s basically it. Why then was there so much
work put into E-Verify if it isn’t required for all employers (like
the I-9 form itself)? Good question. Perhaps because of the human
capital it would require to run the program. Unlike the I-9 which
is not filed anywhere, real people have to be involved in the
running of E-Verify, both on the government and employer side –
programmers, help-desk personnel, employer admins, compliance
staff, and many many others. The E-Verify program as it exists
today is probably not equipped to support the approximately 164
million workers in the U.S. Another possibility for not requiring
E-Verify is the national labor shortage and the associated
political quagmire.
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<p>
What’s more, the government’s released immigration plan <u>left out</u> mandatory E-Verify. For an administration that has
been staunchly committed to
<a
href=”https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/trump-administration-immigration-policy-priorities/”
>
immigration reform
</a>
, the omission surprised a lot of people. Eric Levitz discusses
this in
<a
href=”http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/trump-e-verify-fox-news-makes-it-too-hard-to-hire-the-undocumented.html”
>
his recent article for New York Magazine
</a>
.
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<blockquote>
“Trump’s argument here is not that E-Verify is easily subverted or
prone to error. Rather, in the president’s view, the problem with
E-Verify is that it works.”
</blockquote>
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Reading between the lines, this is an acknowledgement that certain
businesses cannot sustain themselves without unauthorized workers.
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<p>
The quagmire I mentioned goes something like this: the
above-referenced industries need workers, and they need them fast.
U.S. Workers (generally) don’t want to a) do the work, or b) do the
work for the offered wages. Unauthorized workers are willing to
work for less than U.S. Workers and are willing to take the risks
associated with working without a visa. (Some employers hire
workers with the promise of future sponsorship or other benefits.
Oftentimes, those promises never come to fruition, but that’s a
separate issue…) So, an employer is left with a choice: employ
U.S. Workers at a higher wage, if they can find someone willing to
do the work, or employ an unauthorized worker. Mandating E-Verify
means virtually taking away the latter option. In turn, prices go
up, profits are slashed, consumers complain, and so on and so
forth. This is a marked oversimplification, but I think you get the
idea. In essence, the “la la la I can’t hear you!” mentality has
“worked” for those types of organizations. (Of course, there are
plenty of examples of employers getting fined for employing
unauthorized workers.
<a
href=”https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fines-arrests-more-oh-my-jennifer-pawlak/”
>
Here are just a few
</a>
.) And politicians are staying away from the issue because it’s
impossible to come to a solution that makes everyone happy. There
is no middle ground. E-Verify is or it is not.
</p>
<p>
Could Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) summer 2019 raids
be seen as a precursor to some sort of immigration reform enactment
to come, sooner rather than later? What about the new rule
prohibiting asylum seekers from applying from a 3rd-party country?
Both are certainly signs pointing to that possibility, but it’s
hard to know what to really expect. “Expect the unexpected” seems
to be the <em>modus operandi</em> these days.
</p>
<p>
The good news is that if E-Verify is mandated, we can assume that
there will be some ramp-up time. This should give employers time to
get registered (it’s really not bad, but does involve a skills test
for administrators), update their policies and procedures, study up
on how to actually use the system (some of which I’ve covered
<a
href=”https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/e-verify-basics-jennifer-pawlak/”
>
here
</a>
), and just generally get used to the additional step in the
on-boarding process. We may also see regulatory changes around the
use of E-Verify, penalties for non-compliance, and other changes to
the program’s general administration. But it will all be doable!
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What’s next?
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<p>
This brings me to the end of my series on E-Verify. Did I miss
anything? Does your company use E-Verify? Does your Chief
Compliance and/or Risk Officer have a handle on your I-9 program?
What burning questions do you have for me? I want to hear from you!
</p>
<p>This post originally appeared on <a href=”https://www.paragoncompliancellc.com/is-mandatory-e-verify-on-the-horizon” target=”_blank”>Immigration Impact</a>. Reprinted with permission.</p>
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About The Author<br/>
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<b>Jennifer Pawlak</b> is an active and proud member of P.E.O., and is active in other local and national philanthropies. She regularly fund-raises for the JDRF, American Diabetes Association, and serves as a McGill University Global Ambassador.
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