Harbison: Would E-Verify Improve NM?

Jim Harbison

E-Verify is an internet-based system that compares information from an employee’s Form I-9, (Employment Eligibility Verification form), to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) records to confirm employment eligibility. Its purpose is to stop unauthorized employment and according to the Homeland Security’s own website “employment eligibility verification is good business and it’s the law.”

The program was authorized by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). All employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each individual hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and non-citizens. It is administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) who is tasked with determining whether the information matches government records and whether the new hire is authorized to work in the United States. E-Verify claims to facilitate federal agency and employer compliance with U.S. Immigration law. There are more than 225,000 employers, large and small, across the United States that use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of their employees and more than 1000 new businesses sign up each week to use it. While participation is voluntary for most businesses, some companies may be required by state law or federal regulation to use E-Verify. Some states like Mississippi and Arizona have passed legislation to require all employers to use E-Verify and it is mandatory for employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation E-Verify clause.

The Federal government provided more than $100 million to continue, expand and improve E-Verify in 2009. New Mexico participates in many government programs and complies with numerous federal policies. E-Verify is a tool that allows a participating employer to check photos on Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) or Permanent Resident Cards (green cards) against images stored in the USCIS databases. The goal of the photo tool is to detect and deter identity fraud by helping employers determine whether the document presented is the same document issued by USCIS (e.g., that it is not a forgery involving photo-substitution). It seems to me that the State of New Mexico should use this free service for the benefit of its citizens and validate the eligibility for New Mexican jobs, benefits and assistance and insuring they go to those legally entitled to them.

Couldn’t this same system be useful in preserving the sanctity of our election process by issuing driver’s licenses, voter identification cards, or other state issued I.D cards? If this system is so useful and has been used to validate eligibility for more than 10 million employment verifications since 2007 why isn’t it a standard system for our state like it is in other more prosperous states? Could it be that this is a truly politically transparent system that attempts to insure illegal immigrants are not given jobs that should go to our citizens but its implementation would negatively impact the voter base of Democrat Party of New Mexico? The process will never improve as long as we continue to re-elect those individuals who have kept the state and its citizens dependent upon them. When we allow New Mexico jobs to be filled by those who are not legally entitled to work in the US it adversely impacts all of us. Here is an opportunity to make New Mexico a prosperous State and bring us out of the cycle of poverty. Let’s implement E-Verify to insure that New Mexicans have the priority on jobs in New Mexico and quit giving them away to those who are not legally authorized to work in the United States.

Harbison: Would E-Verify Improve NM?