Most Popular Archives Shop
OKC, 67°F, Overcast, Radar Loop | More Weather




View more >
Tue November 28, 2006

Businesses help screen for illegal applicants

Related Articles
Related Information

Staffmark specialist Diana Havenar taps into a federal database to determine whether a Social Security number is valid. Looking on are Stephanie Pickert and Faith Kuchynka. Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman

IMAGE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a voluntary program in July to help employers be sure the people they hire are legal workers. It is called IMAGE, which stands for ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers. Here are some highlights:

ICE:

• Trains participating companies in hiring procedures, fraudulent document detection and anti-discrimination procedures.

Employers:

• Agree to an ICE audit of the employment authorization forms (form I-9) for their employees.

• Use the Department of Homeland Security's Basic Pilot Employment Verification Program to see whether new hires are eligible to work in the United States.

• Establish internal training.

• Arrange annual, independent I-9 audits.

• Establish self-reporting procedure for violations or deficiencies.

• Submit annual report.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

What is an I-9 form?
Employers are required to maintain an employment eligibility verification form, or Form I-9, on every employee.

• Section One. On the first day of employment, employees fill out this section, attesting to identity and employment eligibility.

• Section Two. Within three days of hire, employers complete this section by examining original documents of identity (a driver's license, for example) and employment authorization (a Social Security card, for example), recording document numbers and certifying that the documents appeared to be genuine and relate to the employee.

Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

In this three-part series, The Oklahoman looks at efforts to deny immigrants jobs, considers the booming market in counterfeit documents, and describes some proposed solutions.

Related Searches
 
 
Top Jobs
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
By Judy Gibbs Robinson
Staff Writer
At least one Oklahoma City employer is taking no chances when it comes to hiring illegal immigrants.

Every time someone fills out an application at Staffmark, 4400 Northwest Expressway, the company runs the Social Security number through a federal database to make sure it is legitimate.


ADVERTISEMENT


In seconds, the computer screen confirms authorization to work in the United States, or spits out a form advising the job-seeker to check with the Social Security Administration to correct any errors.

"At first we thought, ‘Oh, gosh. One more thing to do.' But it's just as easy as can be," said Diana Havenar, on-site specialist for Staffmark, an employment agency that places workers in industrial, clerical and executive positions.

Staffmark is one of about 12,000 businesses in the United States — 127 in Oklahoma — participating in the Basic Pilot Employment Verification Program, a voluntary, Internet-based system designed to deny illegal immigrants jobs by determining immediately whether their work documents are legitimate. The program started in five states in 1997, expanded to all 50 states at the end of 2004, and is poised to grow.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made it one pillar of a new, voluntary program to encourage employers to police their own work force. And Congress is looking at bills to make the verification checks mandatory.

Steve Merrill, spokesman for the Oklahoma Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigration group, welcomes anything to help employers screen workers. He said 90 percent of employers want to do the right thing but need training and tools.

The last major immigration reform law, passed in 1986, required all employers to examine identity and work authorization documents and certify that they appear legitimate. It did not require them to keep copies or verify that documents are valid — omissions that essentially sheltered employers who hire unauthorized aliens and led to a booming false-document industry, Matthew C. Allen, an official with U.S.