llinois delays law prohibiting use of DHS employment verification system

Illinois officials agreed Wednesday to delay enforcement of a controversial law that forbids state employers from enrolling in a federal system that verifies if job applicants are legally eligible to work so that state legislators can consider a bill that would revoke the law.

Illinois was set to begin enforcing a law on Jan. 1, 2008, that would prohibit employers from enrolling in any employment eligibility verification system until the system could accurately determine a job applicant's legal status 99 percent of the time.

The law, called the Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act and passed in August, put Illinois in direct conflict with the Homeland Security Department, which has been rolling out its Employment Eligibility Verification System, or E-Verify, an online network that employers can voluntarily use to check whether a worker's name and Social Security number are valid to curtail hiring undocumented immigrants. About 30,000 employers are in the system and about 3 million job applicants were checked last year. The error rate for the system is 0.3 percent, said Laura Keehner, DHS press secretary.

About 7 percent of the time, E-Verify cannot determine if the applicant's name and Social Security number are valid and in those cases sends employers a "tentative nonconfirmation" message. Employers must inform the applicant, who has eight business days to dispute findings. If the employee contests, the Social Security Administration or DHS must determine within 10 federal working days if the applicant is eligible to work.

In October, Illinois Republican Sen. Bill Brady, who represents Illinois' 44th District, introduced a bill to repeal the provisions forbidding use of E-Verify. The Senate is expected to debate the bill after the December recess, plans that influenced Illinois officials to delay enforcement of the law. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff has publicly criticized Illinois' law forbidding use of E-Verify, and the department filed a lawsuit in a Springfield federal court in September to declare the statute unconstitutional. DHS has delayed pursuing the lawsuit pending the outcome of the vote on the bill to revoke the law prohibiting use of E-Verify. DHS also questions Illinois' assertion that the system is inaccurate. "Opponents [of E-Verify] like to confuse the public by saying the system is inaccurate," Keehner said. "But tentative nonconfirmed does not mean an error. It means it's working, telling the person inquiring that there is a mismatch between info in the database and the information being input. The majority of the tentative non confirmations -- over 90 percent -- are fixed within 10 days."

But some Illinois legislators insist the system is imprecise and too time-consuming. "Seems the more high-tech we get the more mistakes can be made to impact people's lives," said Monique Davis, a Democrat who a represents Illinois' 27th District and was co-sponsor of the law. "What a destroyer that could be. And which government is operating so efficiently that we would trust them to do that? We have to look for ways to support and bolster family and the economy, rather than look under rocks for crime.

"It's up to the Congress to figure out how to tighten its borders and what to do when [people are] here illegally," she added. "They're fearful to act, [so] we get into a messy can of worms."

In a statement released Thursday, Chertoff said DHS will inform Illinois employers enrolled in E-Verify that they can continue using the system without fear that Illinois will take action against them, and employers can continue to enroll in E-Verify. Last year, more than 900 employers in Illinois signed up for E-Verify.

"We are serious about immigration, and with the failure of Congress to act, we at DHS must enforce the law as it currently is on the books," Keehner said. "E-Verify is one of the best tools employers can use to ensure they're [hiring legal workers]."

Other states have debated the use of E-Verify. The Arizona Contractors Association filed a motion in a federal district court challenging as unconstitutional an Arizona law that requires employers to use E-Verify. The case was dismissed on Dec. 7.