Georgia Lawmakers Pass E-Verify; Business Concerns Unfounded

Written by Bob Griggs

After a political struggle that lasted until the last day of the session, the State Legislature on Thursday passed one of the strongest illegal immigration bills in the nation. Once signed by the Governor, the new law will, among other things, require businesses with 10 or more employees to enroll in E-Verify, a free federal web-based program through which employers can check the employment eligibility of their new hires.

The primary complaint from the business community, as exemplified by the comments of my friend from the Gwinnett Chamber, is that the E-Verify requirement will place an unreasonable burden on Georgia businesses as they struggle to emerge from the recession:

“We’re coming out of [a] recession, and businesses are doing all they can do right now to stay afloat,” said Jann Moore, senior director of public policy and education for the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. “To turn around and put the responsibility of another policy on business is the wrong thing to do. The timing could not be worse.”

In truth, the fears are completely unjustified. First, the compromise reached on Thursday exempts smaller businesses for which, arguably, E-Verify would cause the greatest burden. As I will explain in a minute, even the smallest businesses can comply with the law with minimal hassle.

Second, businesses of any size can reduce the actual cost of compliance to a couple of minutes and less than $6 per new hire, a far cry from the $127 per new employee claimed by the business lobbyists.

In 2007, I founded Verify I-9 LLC, which is a Designated Agent of the E-Verify program. In short, we conduct verifications for our business clients. We have hundreds of clients from many states including Georgia.

Our average client employs fewer than four workers and hire no more than one or two new employees a year. But even for our larger clients, participation in E-Verify is essentially hassle-free.

Verify I-9 currently charges no setup fee and no monthly fee; in other words, it costs nothing to enroll in E-Verify. By using a Designated Agent (aka Employer Agent), the employer avoids the tutorials and mastery tests that are required before access to the system is granted. By hiring us, the employer saves three to six hours of labor cost on the front end.

E-Verify adds just a couple of minutes to the hiring process—the time that it takes to drop the I-9 form into a fax machine. We submit the information from the I-9 to E-Verify and return the response by email, usually within one business day. The employer writes a verification number on the I-9 form and files it away.

It really is as simple as that.

Our charge for this service is currently as low as $5.95, and no more than $9.90 per new hire. Employers that enroll directly (rather than use a Designated Agent) can use the system for free.

Over 400,000 businesses have enrolled in E-Verify with over 1,000 new businesses joining each week. Hundreds of Georgia businesses participate including Gwinnett-based enterprises E.R. Snell Construction, Cash Register & POS Systems Support, Next Step Electrical Services, Surig & Son Specialized Masonry, Drywall & Acoustic Contractors and Phillip Blount & Associates.

When you hear the business community, liberal politicians and pro-amnesty advocates foretelling the demise of Georgia’s economy, know that the complaints are unfounded and amount to nothing more than posturing to preserve the status quo.

What do you think? Do you support Georgia’s new E-Verify requirement? Would you be more likely to patronize a business that checks its new hires? Tell me what you think in the comments.

Georgia lawmakers pass illegal immigration crackdown  | ajc.com