Politics & Government

County Commissioners Require Contractors to Verify Legal Workers

The five-member Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to require county contractors to verify they are using legal employees.

The Carroll County Board of Commissioners has voted to require companies that receive county contracts to use a federal online system to verify their employees are in the country legally.

“Carroll County wants to send a clear message that we support businesses large and small, by working to establish a level playing field for businesses that follow the rules," Doug Howard,  president of the Board of County Commissioners, said in a press release.

Employees would be tracked via an online government system called E-Verify.

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"E-Verify is one tool designed to improve our business climate and to fight illegal immigration," said Howard. The board took the action last week.

According to the Department of Homeland Security website, E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on an employee's Employment Eligibility Verification form (I-9), to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States. There is no charge to employers to use E-Verify. The E-Verify system is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

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The Department of Homeland Security reports that more than 238,000 employers are enrolled in the program, with over 16 million queries being run through the system in fiscal year 2010. There have been over 3 million cases run through the system in fiscal year 2011 (as of December 11, 2010).

E-Verify is mandatory for some employers, such as those with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause, and employers in certain states.

Carroll County Comptroller Robert Burk said he was not aware of any jurisdictions in Maryland that have implemented the E-Verify program to date. 

The unauthorized immigrant population living in the United States stood at 10.8 million in January 2010, unchanged from a year earlier but 8 percent below the peak of 11.8 million in January 2007, according to a Department of Homeland Security report released in January.


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