All state executive-branch agencies will use the federal E-Verify system to check employment eligibility based on immigration status beginning June 1 under an effort fast-tracked by Gov. Bob McDonnell.
The governor on Monday announced that he is accelerating a process under way via 2010 legislation that requires state agencies to enroll in E-Verify by Dec. 1, 2012, to screen new hires.
Through the Internet-based E-Verify system operated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, employers can check an applicant's eligibility to work in this country.
Virginia is one of 14 states that has adopted a requirement for public or private employers to use the E-Verify system. Two other states encourage its use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The executive branch encompasses dozens of agencies in areas that report to the governor, such as education, health and public safety.
Most federal contractors or subcontractors have been required to use E-verify since Sept. 8, 2009.
Virginia has had procedures in place since November 1986 to ensure that state agencies have a legal workforce, according to McDonnell's office. Since Sept. 8, 2009, those state agencies receiving federal contracts requiring the use of E-Verify have been using the system.
"My administration has focused on enforcing the nation's immigration laws to ensure that all of those working in Virginia's public and private sectors are legally eligible to do so," McDonnell said in a release announcing the change.
The state also is poised to expand the use of E-Verify through legislation sitting on McDonnell's desk.
Both chambers in the 2011 General Assembly passed a bill — now awaiting action by McDonnell — requiring an employer with more than 50 workers and a contract for more than $50,000 with a state agency to use E-Verify.
Any employer who does not comply would be barred from contracting with any state agency for up to one year.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says more than 225,000 employers in the country use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of their employees, and about 1,000 businesses sign up each week. In fiscal 2010, the system ran more than 16 million queries.
Improvements have been made to the system in recent years, but a December report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office said terrors persist and that the system remains vulnerable to identity theft and employer fraud.
The biggest challenge for state agencies using the system has involved applicants who have changed their name and the E-Verify system hasn't caught up, said Sara Redding Wilson, director of the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management.
As for applicants rejected because of immigration status, she said, "most of them aren't."
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