More businesses using E-Verify to ID legal workers

A growing number of Tennessee employers are using a federal database to determine whether their employees can legally work in the U.S.
The Tennessean reports both word-of-mouth and state law are driving an increase in the number of businesses signing up for the Internet-based E-Verify. Over about four years, the number of Tennessee companies using the program has grown from 380 to 2,717.
In part, that growth is due to a September 2006 executive order from Gov. Phil Bredesen giving the state the authority to audit the personnel files of companies with state contracts. Employers caught knowingly employing people not authorized to work in the U.S. can temporarily lose their business licenses. But if they consistently use E-Verify they are protected from the sanctions.
Also, in September the federal government started requiring its contractors and subcontractors to use E-Verify.
Even so, only a fraction of the 115,000 private and state government employers in Tennessee currently use the program. But E-Verify’s growth in Tennessee is similar to what’s happening across the county.
On average, 1,000 new U.S. employers sign up for the program each week, said Sharon Scheidhauer, a spokeswoman with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
But E-Verify is not a perfect system. For one thing, it does not alert an employer if a legitimate Social Security number is already in use, so it sometimes clears workers who are not authorized to work. Also, it sometimes misidentifies legitimate workers as unauthorized to work, including people who have legally changed their names, such as women who have recently married.
Workers who are misidentified have about a week to try to correct the problem before they must be fired.
The National Federation of Independent Business tries to make sure small-business owners understand the program before they sign up, executive director Karen Harned said.
For instance, employers can’t selectively use the program for employees they deem suspicious. Also, the names of businesses using E-Verify are public record.
Rachel Bragg, who oversees human resources for FreshPoint Tomato in Tennessee, said E-Verify is incredibly easy to use.
“It really gives you the peace of mind to know that the documents you are getting (from new hires) are legitimate and were obtained legally,’’ she said.