06/24/08 E-Verify

E-Verify. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Earlier this month, President Bush signed an Executive Order that would require businesses dealing with the federal government to use the E-Verify system. Diane Kurrle with US Apple explains. KURRLE: What E-Verify is, is it's really a way to instantly find out whether the social security number that's given to an employer is a good social security number or not. Right now employers send I-9 forms back to the government and it usually takes a matter of weeks before they get what they call a no-match letter. The no-match letter can mean anything from the social security number just being written down wrong to a stolen number. In a time sensitive business like tree fruit production having the ability to instantly find out if an employee is eligible to go to work is a definite plus. KURRLE: However, there are some problems with E-Verify and that's the reason very few employers are using it. It has an error rate of about 4% which sounds like perhaps a small number but when you start multiplying that across large numbers of employers that could really have a sweeping effect. Arizona recently passed a law requiring all employers to use the E-Verify system. KURRLE: A Phoenix restaurant owner hired one of his own daughters who was born in this country and received a tentative non-confirmation when he put her through the system. Also the Swift meat packing plant which was the subject of a very widely reported raid a couple of years ago was using the E-Verify program. Those employees who were arrested were found to be using other people's social security numbers. Tomorrow, more on the E-Verify program. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.