Beginning Sept. 8, 2009, Federal Contractors Required to Use E-Verify

Beginning Sept. 8, 2009, all federal contractors will be required to use E-Verify, the government database used to verify employment eligibility of workers. E-Verify is a database run jointly by the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). It compares work eligibility information collected by the employer against information in the SSA’s database in order to verify employment eligibility.

Contracts awarded after Sept. 8th will contain an E-Verify clause, which will require enrollment in E-Verify within 30 days of entering into the contract. E-verify must be used to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires, whether or not they are working on the contract, and to verify the employment eligibility of existing employees, if they will be working on the contract.

This new requirement will subject more employers to scrutiny by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the interior enforcement arm of DHS. In addition to increasing administrative costs to U.S. businesses during a recession, it will likely result in an increase in ICE audits.

Tags: Dept. of Homeland Security, E-verify, employment eligibility, federal contractors, immigration
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