It’s my job to watch the changes in immigration compliance rules. That’s part of what I do as a North Carolina lawyer. Mandatory use of the controversial employment eligibility tool, E-Verify, has been delayed for six weeks, the Department of Homeland Security announced. E-Verify, an internet-based system that allows employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of newly hired employees, has been voluntary since the pilot program’s creation in 2003.

On June 6, 2008, President Bush issued Executive Order 13465 that required executive departments, agencies and federal contractors and subcontractors to use E-Verify exclusively as of January 15, 2009 to verify whether employees are actually eligible to work in the US. The mandatory use of E-Verify has been challenged in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. Chertoff. The suit alleges mandatory use E-Verify violates the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act because the legislation authorizing E-Verify makes clear that participation in the system is voluntary.

The effective date of the Executive Order has been delayed from January 15, 2009 to February 20, 2009.

Tags: Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. Chertoff, E-verify, Executive Order 13465, I-9, IIRIRA, immigration

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under E-verify, I-9, I-9 compliance, immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.