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Counterpoint:

By Ann Marie Dooley
 

The July 6 editorial, “E-Verify loophole must be addressed,” suggests that the E-Verify law Gov. Perdue signed falls short because it is limited to businesses employing 25-plus employees. This loophole is the least of our worries.

E-Verify is a federal program that uses Social Security Administration  and Department of Homeland Security databases to check employment eligibility. Employers enter employee identity information and the system confirms it or a “tentative nonconfirmation” (TNC) notice is issued. That worker then has eight days to contest the notice with Social Security or Homeland Security. If the worker does not contest the result, the business must fire that employee or risk violating federal law.

In theory, punching in a name and Social Security number to verify work authorization sounds efficient. In practice, the system is problematic.

First, the system relies solely on databases. Errors that lead to false positives and negatives are unavoidable. E-Verify can’t identify folks who present counterfeit or stolen documents. If a person presents “good documents,” he or she is cleared for employment.

More troubling are the false negatives. E-Verify misidentifies U.S. citizens and legal workers as TNCs or even “final nonconfirmations” because of errors in databases. It can take months to get personal information corrected.

The Immigration and Policy Center estimates that as many as 104,495 U.S. citizens and lawful immigrant workers in North Carolina could be misidentified through E-Verify.

E-Verify is not going to keep unscrupulous employers from hiring workers under the table. But it will cost law-abiding employers roughly $127 per worker, and that doesn’t include costs associated with lost productivity when false negatives occur.

Misplaced efforts to expand E-Verify to solve our broken immigration system are bad for North Carolina businesses and workers. Let’s leave immigration enforcement to the Feds.

The writer is a Greensboro immigration attorney.