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EMPLOYEE CITIZEN VERIFICATION BILLS MULLED
AUGUST 19 2009
MICHIGAN
REPORT
The Capitol Record Since 1906
REPORT NO. 159, VOLUME 48-- WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19 2009
EMPLOYEE CITIZEN VERIFICATION BILLS MULLED
Bills that would require some employers use an electronic system to verify that their employees are legally allowed to work in the United States could annually save the state $600 million in uncollected income taxes each year and prevent state residents from having to compete for jobs against illegal aliens, proponents told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
However, opponents of HB 4355 and HB 4969 said there are still too many problems in the E-Verify system that would be required to match Social Security records through Homeland Security records for public employees, state contracts and employment agencies. Those problems include that the system still relies upon paper documents that could be faked, has a 4 percent error rate and can be cumbersome to employers, they said.
On top of that, some said, those who hire undocumented workers usually pay them "under the table" and wouldn't be issuing them a paycheck, limiting the ability to track paychecks.
Because of the hours of testimony on both sides of the issue, Rep. Mark Meadows (D-East Lansing), the committee chair, opted to hold off on voting on the bills this week.
The panel did adopt a substitute and amendment, however, which would put more teeth into the legislation. Under the new version of HB 4355, any contractor caught not verifying an employee would be barred from operating for a year.
Of the opposition to the E-Verify system, which includes the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the American Civil Liberties Union, the bills' sponsor, Rep. David Agema (R-Grandville), said that those who attack the system tend to include the illegal aliens caught by the system as part of the error rate.
While the ACLU said that the Social Security Administration estimates that if the system were to go nationwide as a mandate it could errantly pinpoint 2.5 million people as illegal, in actuality, Mr. Agema said, the error rate is less than 4 percent and errors are usually due to people not changing Social Security numbers when they get married or divorced.
The system encourages people to keep their information accurate, he said, and the bills don't allow employers to fire people while they are clearing up their errors. For those that know they were rejected because they aren't legally eligible to work in the United States, they can drop out of the hiring process with no legal repercussions.
Others agreed with Mr. Agema that while the system isn't perfect, most of the errors are because of the other databases on which it relies for comparisons such as Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. They added that lawmakers shouldn't let trying to find perfection get in the way of a voting for a good proposal.
As for the bills being burdensome on employers, 96 percent of them surveyed by the National Federation for Independent Businesses said it was not, according to testimony. Further, the majority of business owners supported a law that would make it mandatory to use a screening system to find illegal workers.
But Nancy McKeague, chief human resources officer with the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said although she supports the theory of screening everyone to ensure that only those who are legally allowed in the country are working in the state, as a voluntary user of the E-Verify system, she doesn't think it is ready.
She said because she is still using paper forms, there is room for fraud and error, as exemplified by a recent raid in the state where most of the illegal workers had been screened and passed through the E-Verify system. She added that there are also some cumbersome parts to the system that could be improved.
"(The system) doesn't work as well as (Mr.) Agema has been led to believe," she said. "It can be time consuming and I'm a little suspect about some of the results they are getting."
Ms. McKeague said she'd like to see the federal New Employment Verification Act (HR 2028 ) passed in Congress before state lawmakers move on this type of legislation, saying that letting federal legislation go first could ensure that every illegal worker is stopped and make the laws to do so simpler.
But contractors who are losing work at millions of dollars a year to undocumented workers because they can't compete with the cheap wages the companies that use them pay said they can't wait around for the federal government to act.
"If we waited for the federal government to move, we wouldn't last, because they move too slow," said Steve Suchowolec, a contractor at M&S Construction.
"Battling the economy is difficult enough without competing against companies using illegal employees," said Steve DeVries a contractor at Kent Company who said he can't even cover the cost of raw materials for the amount bid by companies that use undocumented workers.
Saying that the cost of almost everything is the same including materials and wages because of bargaining units, Mr. DeVries said: "We need a verification system to level the playing field."
At least a handful of states, including Indiana and at least two counties, Macomb and Oakland are already mandating the verifications, and several proponents said that if Michigan doesn't move soon, illegal workers will move to states like Michigan where they meet with the least resistance.
Along with the $600 million that undocumented workers purportedly cost the state in lost tax collections, Michigan also loses out because many workers send their wages back to their home countries rather than spending it locally, and loses when illegal workers compete with residents for jobs, meaning the state should force the issue and become less attractive to undocumented workers as soon as possible, said Jim Runstad, an Oakland County Commissioner.
"I don't believe a county should be leading the state," he said. "Especially with unemployment so high, it's imperative to fight for jobs."
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