Employer sanctions law criticized

Only 15 percent of state's firms using E-Verify system

BY SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen

 

Fewer than 15 percent of Arizona employers - about 20,000 - have signed up to use the federal government's E-Verify system to check whether a new employee's name matches the employee's Social Security number, according to the Immigration Policy Center.

The center is a division of the American Immigration Law Foundation in Washington, D.C.

The new Arizona law went into effect Jan. 1 and it punishes employers who knowingly hire workers who are not authorized by the federal government to work in the United States.

Violators can have their business license suspended or revoked under the law.

A report just released by the policy center said that "given the small number, it's not yet possible to make definitive statements about the impact that E-Verify will have on employers in general."

However, it says "innocent" Arizona workers have "limited opportunities" to clear up problems with their records because of the location and business hours of government offices, which close at 4 p.m.

It points out there is one U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Tucson. It does not accept walk-ins and appointments must be made online.

Because of errors in the computerized E-Verify system, which uses a Social Security Administration database, "approximately 10 percent of naturalized U.S. citizens are told they are not authorized to work."

The report asserts that Arizona could lose "as much as $10 billion" because "there are not enough workers in Arizona to take the jobs abandoned by immigrant workers."

- more -