Fact of the Week: 9/20/07

Fact of the Week. . .
Thursday, September 20, 2007

Did you know . . .

Presently, 17 states have enacted employment eligibility verification laws, yet the requirements are not always consistent. 

  • For example, Arizona law mandates employers to participate in the federal “Basic Pilot” verification program by the beginning of 2008, yet Illinois law prohibits employers from participating in the program until it is improved to meet certain benchmarks for accuracy and reliability. 
  • An employer who conducts business in both Illinois and Arizona will find it impossible to comply with both laws.


A growing problem …

  • The growing patchwork of uncoordinated state employment verification rules and regulations is impacting the ability of U.S. employers to maintain consistent hiring policies and is undermining the development of a coherent national policy.
  • It is simply not possible for employers – especially multi-state employers – to comply with 50 different sets of state requirements that inevitably conflict with the already complex federal employee verification process.  
Congress must establish clear federal statutory language preempting states from imposing disparate employment eligibility verification provisions. 

Developing an Efficient and Foolproof System to Ensure a Legal Workforce is the Key to an Effective Immigration Policy

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The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (www.legal-workforce.org) represents human resource professionals in thousands of small and large U.S. employers representing every sector of the American economy.  The HR Initiative and its members are seeking to improve the current process of employment verification by creating a secure, efficient and reliable system that will ensure a legal workforce and help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.