Aspects of immigration law under fire

Provisions of new Utah immigration legislation, due to be in effect next July, are under fire as lawmakers complete interim work and prepare for the 2009 session.

Aspects of 2008's immigration omnibus bill, SB81, currently getting the most scrutiny include the mandated use of a federal employment verification system for public employers and state contractors and new immigration screening responsibilities for county and municipal law enforcement.

In addition, an Oklahoma case pending in Denver's 10th District U.S. Court of Appeals could have repercussions for the new Utah code if affirmed by the court. The case, filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, contends that employment-related provisions in Oklahoma's 2007 law violate federal law — claims already affirmed by an Oklahoma federal district court.

Utah's SB81 was crafted, in part, by using the Oklahoma law as a model.

The E-Verify federal employment verification system, which is in the Oklahoma and Utah laws but is criticized by civil rights activists, compares citizenship status documentation from new employees to databases in the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security. The computerized screening issues a response to employers in three-to-five seconds and will either confirm legal employment status, deliver a non-confirmation due to any conflict encountered between information provided and federal records, or give a 24-hour "verification in process" delay note.

In the event of a non-confirmation, the employer is required to issue a written notification of the tentative non-confirmation, and the employee has eight days to address the problem. Failure to do so will result in the issuance of a final non-confirmation, a ruling that can form the basis of an instant termination, though that decision is left to the employer.

Barbara Szweda, a policy advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, during testimony at a recent Utah legislative interim committee hearing on immigration, said a plethora of data errors, particularly in the SSA data files, will result in widespread false non-confirmations and citizens will suffer.

"If, for some reason, the name is different, or one number is off ... that American citizen ... is out of a job," Szweda said.

SSA records indicate there may be as many as 17.8 million discrepancies in name, date of birth and citizenship status information records and, of those documents with problems, nearly 13 million belong to U.S. citizens.