E-Verify

Subscribe to E-Verify via RSS

By Dawn Lurie 

“Yes, we use E-Verify.” “Of course, our company is in compliance, we did an I-9 audit a few years ago – isn’t that the same as E-Verify?” “I know this is not an issue, because I remember being told we addressed all I-9 and E-Verify issues.” “No, the General Counsel’s office doesn’t handle immigration issues.”

You get the picture. Many companies simply do not take immigration compliance seriously. This failing usually does not come from a disinterest in compliance, but rather from a threshold failure to understand the intricacies involved in immigration issues or the potential exposure that could result from noncompliance. Only when faced with government investigations, public scrutiny, or other negative impacts on the business do the right people in the right places start to pay attention. When they learn that federal contractors can be suspended or debarred for failing to adhere to immigration and E-Verify related issues that attention is heightened.Continue Reading Federal Contractors: The FAR E-Verify Clause Revisited – Critical Steps a Contractor Can Take To Foster E-Verify Compliance

The final rule mandating E-Verify for federal contractors became effective on September 8, 2009. The lawsuit that stayed implementation of E-Verify since January ended with the district court’s granting of the Government’s motion for summary judgment. As long as Congress continues to fund E-Verify, it should remain a permanent fixture of federal procurement.

Continue Reading Trust, but E-Verify: A Cheat Sheet for Mandatory Employment Eligibility Verification by Federal Contractors

For the third time, the Government has agreed to delay the mandatory implementation of E-Verify for government contractors. They will not have to comply with E-Verify until June 30, 2009, when contracting officers can begin inserting FAR clause 52.222-54. Employment Eligibility Verification, into solicitations and contracts. 74 Fed. Reg. 17793.

E-Verify has been pushed back once already as a result of a lawsuit in federal district court filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other parties. As this Blog has previously reported, the plaintiffs challenge the mandatory use of E-Verify for government contractors by means of an Executive Order despite statutory language making its use voluntary. Plaintiffs moved for summary judgment, and the court agreed to a Government request to stay proceedings while the new Administration assesses the new rule.
 Continue Reading Government Contractors Are Spared E-Verify (For Now) But Face Debarment for Hiring Illegal Immigrants

Mandatory implementation of E-Verify by government contractors – which was originally scheduled for January 15, 2009 and postponed until February 20 – has been postponed again in connection with a lawsuit filed by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America and its co-plaintiffs in U.S. District Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief on several grounds. The government has now agreed that contractors need not comply with E-Verify until at least May 21, 2009.
 Continue Reading E-Verify Postponed . . . Again

Beginning on January 15, 2009, certain federal contractors will be required to utilize the E-Verify system to assure that employees assigned to work on federal procurement contracts and all new employees are authorized to work in the United States.  E-Verify is an Internet-based employment verification system administered by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) designed to ensure the legal employment status of employees working in the United States.Continue Reading Federal Contractors Must Now Verify the Legal Work Status of Employees