Tuesday, Aug. 05, 2008

Businesses anxious over order to verify workers' ID

SACRAMENTO -- A White House order that federal contractors verify employees' identity documents has some businesses sweating over the potential impact.

President Bush has ordered businesses and institutions with federal contracts to use E-Verify, a database that checks if workers' names, Social Security numbers or other ID match.

Under the Bush order, employers would have to fire workers whose identity doesn't square with Social Security Administration records. The computer system can't flag ID information that's been stolen, but it can detect false Social Security numbers used by illegal immigrants.

"We're concerned. It's still very much open how far back in the supply chain E-Verify would have to be used," said Rich Hudgins, president of the California Canning Peach Association.

His group's 500 members produce 80 percent of the nation's canned peaches, which are supplied to processors that sell most of them for federally subsidized school lunches.

An estimated 50 percent to 70 percent of farmworkers are suspected of being undocumented, particularly in fruit and vegetable production.

Groups like the peach farmers have until Aug. 11 to submit comments to the federal government about Bush's order and to ask questions. The rule won't go into effect until later this year, after the comments have been reviewed.

Government officials suggest that the scope of the order may be more limited than businesses imagine. But in the meantime, industry representatives complain, it's unclear which employees they'll have to check.

Hudgins has asked the government to extend the public comment period 90 days. He said his members are harvesting and need time to develop questions.

If food companies feel they won't be able to comply with the order without firing workers and damaging their businesses, Hudgins said, "they might just take a pass on school lunch bids."

The U.S. food industry acknowledges that illegal immigrants are in their work force. Workers with fake documents began filling farm jobs as immigrants who had received amnesty in 1986 moved out, representatives say. The law hasn't required employers to check documents' authenticity.

Today, the food industry and other businesses with large immigrant work forces want to combine E-Verify with a program to allow undocumented workers to earn legal status.

About 1 percent of U.S. businesses voluntarily use E-Verify. Congress made it available in 1996 but has limited it to new hires, not workers already on payrolls. The Bush rule would require employees hired after 1986 who work directly on a federal contract to be checked as well as all new hires once the database is in use.

Current employees not connected to a contract would not have to be checked, said Michael Collins, communications official with the federal General Services Administration.

Businesses with employees performing services on federal land or installations, such as maintenance or construction, will have to use E-Verify to check employees assigned to the contract.

Pride Industries in Sacramento was awarded $51 million in 2007 for housekeeping, janitorial and food service work on military bases.

Tina Oliveira, human resources vice president, said Pride is not worried that its employees will prove ineligible to work.

But she said she understands others' concerns.

"These (fake) documents are really good these days," she said. "I think the industries that have been accepting these documents are going to have an impact."

Immigration control groups say E-Verify is a proven tool to help employers avoid hiring illegal immigrants.