USCIS Releases Lists of Employers Enrolled in E-Verify Program

Posted by Dawn Lurie on April 02, 2012

United States Citizen and Immigration Service (USCIS) is very busy improving general E-Verify Outreach and Customer Service for employees and employees dealing with the intricacies of the Form I-9 process. We applaud them for their continued efforts on I-9 Central and for today's release detailing the 345,000+ employers enrolled in the E-Verify program, a web-based system that compares information from an employee's Form I-9 to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility. The lists of enrolled employers, including federal contractors, are now conveniently available on the E-Verify website.

"The E-Verify Employers and Federal Contractors Lists provide the business name, city, state and ZIP code used during registration with E-Verify. They also indicate which businesses are federal contractors and provide other information such as workforce size. Click here to see these lists" stated the USCIS web release.

We were very pleased to see that the USCIS offered caveats to be considering when searching these lists. Such caveats are critical when searching the lists for particular employers. Specifically, we do not recommend using the list to confirm or deny E-Verify participation of a particular employer. 

Caveats for reviewing the E-Verify Employers and Federal Contractors Lists:

  • The lists only includes employers and federal contractors who have self-reported that their company has five or more employees.
  • Not all business locations of an employer enrolled in E-Verify may be found on the lists. The absence of a business location does not mean or imply that the business operating at the unlisted location either is or is not enrolled in E-Verify.
  • Naming conventions used by employers may not be recognizable to the public. When an employer enrolls in E-Verify, the employer uses the legal name of the individual or business entity. In many cases, however, an employer may use a trade name for public business purposes.
  • E-Verify does not collect contract information.
  • The E-Verify Employers and Federal Contractors Lists will be updated on a quarterly basis and the current postings are include employers and federal contractors enrolled in E-Verify through March 15, 2012.

More on I-9 updates including a an analysis of the proposed new Form I-9 and ICE's recent worksite activity will be posted shortly.

California Law Prohibits State from Requiring Employers to Use E-Verify

Posted by Dawn Lurie on October 26, 2011

Perhaps in effort to reign in the rapidly growing number of individualized city and local E-Verify laws and simultaneously stimulate the California economy, Governor Jerry Brown signed the “Employment Acceleration Act of 2011” (AB 1236) which will take effect on January 1, 2012. This bill prohibits the state from requiring employers to use E-Verify. In a nutshell, the new law prohibits the state, cities or counties from requiring employers to use E-Verify, an electronic employment verification system that uses employees’ Social Security numbers to determine work eligibility. The bill makes certain exceptions for city or county workers, and also takes into account that E-Verify is a requirement for particular employers under federal or as a condition for employers receiving federal funds.

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Just When You Were Ready for Summer, ICE Sends a Chill Through the Nation

Posted by Dawn Lurie on June 15, 2011

It was noticeably cooler in Washington this week as House Republicans sent a chill out to U.S. employers with Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) introducing an immigration enforcement measure that would make mandatory the currently voluntary E-Verify system, thus requiring immigration status checks for all new workers. But perhaps the biggest chill of the day comes from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) newest worksite enforcement action, which has us expecting over 1,000 Notices of Inspection (NOI) to be served on companies throughout the U.S. starting today - June 15, 2011.

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The Ninth Circuit and Arizona's S.B. 1070

Posted by Dawn Lurie on April 19, 2011

arizonasign.pngFrom Mahsa Aliaskari in GT's Los Angeles office

With a statewide E-verify mandate in 2008, Arizona pioneered state-led immigration enforcement measures, and since then a number of states have adopted similar measures. Arizona, meanwhile, continues with its efforts to address immigration and the undocumented population working and residing in the state at a time when the federal government is failing to act.

Our recent GT Alert discusses the latest development in this battle, when, on April 11, the state was unsuccessful in challenging a U.S. District Court injunction blocking key provisions of the controversial Arizona law, known as S.B. 1070, in a case brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Siding with the Obama administration, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling enforcing the injunction (United States v. Arizona, 9th Cir., No. 10-16645,4/11/11). S.B. 1070 took effect on July 29, 2010. However, one day before that, on July 28, the district court granted a preliminary injunction, blocking certain provisions of the law from going into effect.

E-Verify Site Visits Expected Soon

Posted by Dawn Lurie on March 18, 2011

Get ready for a new guest at the dinnertable. Although not formally announced (and not confirmed by the DHS) we understand the Monitoring and Compliance (M&C) branch of E-Verify plans to expand its "outreach" activities.

During the past year M&C sent letters to employers in instances where E-Verify believed there were misuses relating to the system or where they just wanted to help" employers improve compliance. For example, companies that had habitual E-Verify queries completed outside of the 3-day window may have received a friendly note from USCIS. Clearly, M&C wants to be invited to this dinner party. Now the question is, should there be a seat at the table for them? M&C is charged with monitoring non-compliant behaviors including:

  1. Fraudulent use of alien number and social security number by E-Verify users;
  2. Verification of existing employees (as opposed to new hires);
  3. Verification of job applicants, rather than new employees;
  4. Selectively using E-Verify for verifications based on foreign appearance, race/ethnicity, or citizenship status;
  5. Failure to use E-Verify, consistently or at all, once registered; and
  6. Unauthorized use of E-Verify information.

The point is site-visits may assist M&C in determining whether businesses are compliant. So, work with me here, M&C shows up at your door to conduct a site visit, and let's just pretend you are a very-very-very bad company (like one of those egregious employers we hear ICE talk about). What happens? Who punishes you? Are you sent upstairs without dessert? Are you told not to come back to the table until you can behave?

Seriously, is your E-Verify MOU revoked thereby exposing you to other misfortunes? Federal contractors that cannot participate in E-Verify cannot work under certain federal contracts without a waiver. Loss of E-Verify will also be problematic for companies in certain states. This is truly serious business. But that's not all I worry about. As a result of the site visit, could M&C invite other unwanted guests to your party, such as ICE and the Office of Special Counsel?

At this time we are unsure whether advance notice will be provided to companies prior to a site visit and whether counsel may be present during the meeting. Anything's possible, don't be late, dinner is served promptly at 7pm. Call me for your compliance planning including E-Verify review and how to handle an M&C visit, as well as any other type of fraud detection visit from DHS.