Moments after taking office last Tuesday, Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott signed Executive Order 11-02, requiring all state agencies to use E-Verify to determine the employment eligibility of state employees, contractors and subcontractors. (Gov. Rick Scott Press Release, Jan. 5, 2011) Governor Scott’s Executive Order is an important step towards fulfilling a campaign promise he made to “require all Florida employers to use the free E-Verify system to ensure that their workers are legal.” (Rick Scott for Governor Campaign Website, Sept. 8, 2010)
E-Verify is an online-based system that allows employers to compare the information employees provide when hired with Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records. (USCIS Website, Jan. 5, 2011) Authorized by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), E-Verify has been key in helping businesses comply with a federal law prohibiting employers from hiring illegal aliens. (USCIS Website, Jan. 5, 2011) Federal contractors and subcontractors have been required to use E-Verify since Sept. 8, 2009, and more than 225,000 employers across the United States use E-Verify, with about 1,000 new businesses signing up each week. (USCIS Press Release, Jan. 5, 2011; USCIS Website, Jan. 5, 2011)
Governor Scott’s Executive Order comes at a time when pro-amnesty politicians and the open-borders lobby continue their attempts to prevent states aiding in worksite enforcement. Just last Wednesday, Rhode Island Democratic Governor Lincoln Chafee repealed his Republican predecessor’s Executive Order requiring that Rhode Island state departments (and its vendors) use E-Verify to check the legal status of new employees. (The Boston Globe, Jan. 5, 2011) And in 2007, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued city attorneys in Arizona over its mandatory E-Verify law—known as H.B. 2779—which requires that all state employers (public and private) confirm that employees are eligible to work through the E-Verify system. (See FAIR’s Legislative Update, Dec. 13, 2010) Oral arguments in the case (Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. v. Whiting) were heard in the U.S. Supreme Court just last month. The Court is expected to issue its ruling on the constitutionality of Arizona’s mandatory state E-Verify law this spring. (Id.)