06/25/08 E-Verify Part 2

E-Verify Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Doing business with the government has taken a new twist. It's called the E-Verify and President Bush thinks it's the answer to part of the illegal immigrant problem. Diane Kurrle with U.S. Apple says there are some issues with that. KURRLE: There actually are a number of people that believe that if the E-Verify system is mandated in a wide sort of way without some sort of comprehensive immigration reform along with it that it will actually lead to an increase in identity theft. After the President signed the executive order on June 9th , the ruling is currently under a 60 day comment period. But there are other questions regarding how far down the chain this would extend. KURRLE: If you have, for instance, a company in Washington that may process fresh sliced apples and sell those to the school lunch program, would the processor be required to use the E-Verify system or would all the growers who supply to that processor also be required to use the E-Verify system? We don't know the answers to that yet. It's kind of a danged if you do, danged if you don't (pardon the language) approach but Kurrle says U.S. Apple really wants some answers. KURRLE: Right now I don't think it would be a good thing for our members to use this program until the program doesn't have a 4% error rate. That it's more tested especially with something like apples or other perishable commodities. Once you get a no-match on this, you can't have that person work until they straighten it out with the government and that can take weeks. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.