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From Los Angeles Times

E-Verify works; let's use it

The voluntary program allows employers to electronically verify the work eligibility status of new employees, whose Social Security and alien ID numbers are checked against U.S. records. A photo-matching tool also deters fraud.

by Lamar Smith and Elton Gallegly

June 13, 2011

Over the last few years, our economy has faced unprecedented challenges, and millions of Americans have lost their jobs. For two years, the unemployment rate has hovered around 9%.

While 26 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, 7 million individuals work illegally in the United States. On top of all the challenges Americans face today, it is inexcusable that Americans and legal workers have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs.

Fortunately, there is a tool available to preserve jobs for legal workers: E-Verify. But the program is voluntary. Congress has the opportunity to expand E-Verify — including making it mandatory — so more job opportunities are made available to unemployed Americans.

Created under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, E-Verify is a Web-based system that allows employers to electronically verify the work eligibility of newly hired employees. The Social Security numbers and alien identification numbers of new hires are checked against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records to weed out fraudulent numbers and help ensure that new hires are legally authorized to work in the United States.

The program quickly confirms 99.5% of work-eligible employees. Even though E-Verify is not mandatory, many employers willingly use the program. More than 250,000 American employers currently use it, and an average of 1,300 new businesses sign up each week.

Part of the reason for E-Verify's success is that participating employers are happy with the results. Outside evaluations have found that the vast majority of employers using E-Verify believe it to be an effective and reliable tool for checking the legal status of their employees. In fact, after being subjected to several Immigration and Customs Enforcement I-9 audits, Chipotle now uses E-Verify at all of its restaurants nationwide to help ensure that it hires legal workers.

E-Verify has proved to be much more reliable than the current paper-based, error-prone I-9 system. Under the I-9 system, the employer only has to attest that an identification document "reasonably appears on its face to be genuine." The problem is that fake documents are produced by the millions and can be obtained cheaply. This has undermined the I-9 system.

In addition, when the National Federation for Independent Business polled its members, 76% said it would be a minimal or no burden if "there was one telephone number and/or a single Internet website where you could check a new employee's eligibility to work, something like a merchant's capacity to check the validity of a credit card." This describes E-Verify.

And E-Verify recently received an exceptionally high overall customer satisfaction score — 82 out of 100 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index scale. The government's overall satisfaction score is only 69.

With this sort of track record, it is no surprise that 82% of likely voters responding to a recent Rasmussen poll thought businesses should be required to use E-Verify.

Last year, the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services implemented a photo-matching tool as part of E-Verify. This allows an employer to view a picture of the employee — from a green card, an employment authorization document or a passport — to determine that the employee is in fact the person to whom that Social Security number or alien identification number was issued.

The Department of Homeland Security also recently announced the rollout of the E-Verify self-check system. This will allow job-seekers to check their own employment status and resolve immigration problems before applying for a position. Although E-Verify self-check is available only in a handful of states, it is expected to expand to other states within a year.

E-Verify is a successful tool for employers looking to hire a legal workforce. It also helps reduce the jobs magnet that encourages illegal immigration. In fact, since the implementation of Arizona state legislation requiring the use of E-Verify, the state has seen a 17% decrease in its illegal immigrant population, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

That's why the House Judiciary Committee is focused on making E-Verify mandatory.

It is crucial that we promote policies that help grow our economy and increase job opportunities for Americans and legal immigrants. This includes building on the successes of the E-Verify program and making it mandatory through a gradual phase-in for all employers. Of course, mandatory E-Verify should be coupled with a "safe harbor" for employers who use the program correctly and, through no fault of theirs, receive an incorrect eligibility confirmation.

As long as opportunities for employment exist, the incentive to enter the United States illegally or to overstay visas will continue and efforts to stop illegal entry at U.S. borders will be undermined. It is time to make E-Verify mandatory.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) is chairman of the subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gallegly-everify-20110613,0,7035481,print.story

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Jim Newton: What we have is a failure to communicate

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System is supposed to link all of L.A. County's first responders. But its status is uncertain. Blame sloppiness, recriminations and politics.

by Jim Newton

June 13, 2011

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, public safety leaders in Southern California concluded that the need for a unified emergency communications system was so grave that they had to build it in such a way as to avoid the traditional pitfalls for huge, multi-agency projects: sloppiness, recriminations and politics. Ten years later, they are on the verge of commissioning such a system, but their efforts are beset by sloppiness, recriminations and politics.

The huge undertaking goes by the ungainly acronym LA-RICS, short for the unwieldy full name: The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System. Once built, it is supposed to supply a wireless voice and data system that will link all of Los Angeles County's first responders — 50 law enforcement agencies and 31 fire departments.

In theory, a common communications system would not only protect the region in the event of a terrorist attack or major natural disaster but could smooth responses to more routine crises. The LA-RICS website notes that the response to a 2002 shooting at Los Angeles International Airport was hampered by the different communications systems employed by airport police and those used by local and federal agencies with units at or near the airport. LA-RICS could solve that.

But building a system that bridges so many agencies employing so many different technologies has proved to be a significant challenge. To address it, the governments involved formed a joint powers authority and appointed as its leaders police and fire chiefs, city managers and others believed to have the expertise to know what they wanted without distracting political connections. The agency put out a request for proposals in which it described the system it was seeking and the qualifications it was looking for in bidders. Two companies, Raytheon and Motorola, ended up submitting comprehensive proposals; after exhaustive study, the agency's staff recommended entering into negotiations with Raytheon, and the board agreed.

That should have been almost the end of it, but it hasn't been. Stunned not to receive the nod, Motorola is fighting back aggressively, and the agency board is now riven with dissension about how to proceed. Motorola maintains that the process has been flawed; Raytheon complains that it won fair and square. Officials close to the negotiations credit Raytheon with submitting a significantly less expensive alternative, and they complain that Motorola appears to be trying to win through politics what it failed to win with its bid. Motorola counters that the agency staff is biased against it, and it wants dual negotiations that would include itself as well as Raytheon. Close to $1 billion is at stake. The threat of litigation hovers.

Raytheon supporters are agitated by some of Motorola's connections, especially those of one of its prominent representatives. Matt Knabe of Englander, Knabe and Allen is a well-regarded local lobbyist, and he happens to be the son of County Supervisor Don Knabe. Because of the structure of the joint powers authority, the Board of Supervisors has little direct control. But late last month, as Motorola stepped up its criticism of the process, the senior Knabe intervened in one of the few ways possible for a supervisor: He sought to block approval of a contract extension with the management consultant firm, DeltaWrx, that is negotiating with Raytheon. Motorola supporters have accused DeltaWrx of being biased against Motorola, and when an extension of the firm's contract came to the county supervisors for their approval, Knabe pulled it off the calendar, saying the proposal needed more study.

Knabe's spokeswoman, Cheryl Burnett, said the supervisor wanted more time to review the contract renewal; she said he received it on May 23 and was asked to approve it just two days later. "He feels like it's being rushed," she said.

Don Knabe previously has taken action on matters involving his son's clients. He maintains there's no legal or ethical conflict because his son no longer lives at home, and that he has no bias in favor of his son's clients. But Raytheon supporters regard his meddling in the DeltaWrx contract as problematic.

Motorola has its own reasons to complain. It objects to the way the proposals have been graded and questions Raytheon's ability to do the work. Late last month, the lead negotiator of LA-RICS sheepishly acknowledged that the agency mistakenly gave excerpts of the Motorola proposal to Raytheon. Motorola pounced on the mistake and used it to reinforce its insistence that the agency enter into dual negotiations with the two companies rather than focus exclusively on Raytheon.

The board of the joint powers authority was scheduled to conclude its negotiations with Raytheon this month. Amid all the recent controversy, the project's future is suddenly in doubt. So, if the first responders of Los Angeles County are unable to talk to one another during a fire, an earthquake or a terrorist attack, we'll know what to blame: sloppiness, recriminations and politics.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-newton-column-20110611,0,3240163,print.column

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