ACLU criticizes immigration order at hearing

NBC 10 News and The Associated Press
Published: December 3, 2008

PROVIDENCE—Advocates for immigrants’ rights on Wednesday criticized new state rules aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants in the workplace, saying the regulations were vague and could lead to discrimination of job applicants and other problems.

The state Department of Administration held the first of two public hearings on a key component of Gov. Don Carcieri’s March mandate, which required executive branch agencies and companies doing business with the state to use the federal E-Verify database to confirm that new hires have valid Social Security numbers and are eligible for employment.

Supporters of E-Verify said the initiative would protect American jobs, but immigrant advocates said it was riddled with potential problems.

“We have great concern,“ said Amy Vitale, program coordinator of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We’d like to see some very significant amendments to the rules before they’re put into play.“

The ACLU had sued Carcieri, seeking to throw out his requirement that private employers use the database. That suit is still pending, but a judge has denied the ACLU’s request for a restraining order seeking to stop the emergency implementation of the rules because of a lack of public comment period.

Fifteen states have passed legislation requiring at least some companies use E-Verify.

More than 84,000 employers around the country are registered with E-Verify, and the number of queries run through the system has already increased this fiscal year by more than 2.6 million compared to all of fiscal year 2007, according to federal figures.

Vitale said the new rules contain overly broad language that would expand the scope of Carcieri’s order and require even those businesses who haven’t been awarded a contract to use E-Verify before making a bid on state contracts.

Vitale also cited one 2007 study, commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security, that found employers misused E-Verify to reduce work hours, cut pay and put off training when job applicants
couldn’t be immediately confirmed through the system.

The ACLU wants Rhode Island’s rules to include protections for new hires, including that new employees be allowed time off to rectify errors with the Social Security Administration.

More generally, vague terms such as “contractor”, “subcontractor” and “new-hire” needed to be more clearly defined, and the regulations need to be more explicitly tied to federal standards to limit abuse and misunderstandings about how to utilize the system, Vitale said.

Not all the feedback Wednesday was negative.

Terry Gorman, executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, encouraged the state to adopt the rules as a way of protecting jobs for American citizens in the thick of an economic crisis.

“We would like to see E-Verify passed,“ Gorman said. “We feel as though it would protect the citizens of Rhode Island.“

The next public hearing is Jan. 8.