New Employment Verification I-9 Form
Today we received the new employment verification From I-9, edition date 
06/16/08. Be aware that no previous edition of the same form will be accepted. Please, also note there are several important changes made to the Form I-9 process:
- Five documents have been removed from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents: Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561), Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570), Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151), Unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327), Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571);
- One document was added to List A of the List of Acceptable Documents: Unexpired Employment Authorization Document (I-766);
- All Employment Authorization Documents with photographs have been consolidated as one item on List A: I-688, I-688A, I-688B, I-766;
- Instructions regarding Section 1 of the Form I-9 now indicate that the employee is not obliged to provide his or her Social Security number in Section 1 of the Form I-9, unless he or she is employed by an employer who participates in E-Verify;
- Employers may now sign and retain Forms I-9 electronically. See instructions on page 2 of the Form I-9.
All employers in Florida should switch to the new form ASAP and used moving forward regardless of any time line provided by the government. This Will avoid any confusion later on. The new Form I-9 can be downloaded by clicking here.
In its report of June 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated that while E-Verify may help employers detect fraudulent documents (and I would say indirectly), it cannot fully address the use of legitimate documents. This issue can only be fully addressed by individuals owning those documents. The GAO also points out that E-Verify is vulnerable to employer misuse and even, fraud. 
employee based on what could turn out to be an E-verify error could still land them a discrimination charge under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). IRCA prohibits discrimination when hiring and firing based on the basis of citizenship status or national origin. Such discrimination could result from firing an individual based on lack of employment authorization when the individual is in reality authorized. 
On June 4, 2008, Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina signed into law an omnibus immigration bill (HR 4400), which requires employers to verify the identity of employees with either a South Carolina driver's license or through E-verify. This bill also denies non-emergency medical care for undocumented adult immigrants by state funded clinics and hospitals. One important issues is that because federal law requires that care be given without discrimination, local healthcare providers will be facing a significant challenge in following the law. In recognition of this challenge, perhaps, no state agency is tasked with enforcing the new restrictions. Further, the new law goes on to prohibit undocumented immigrants from attending public institutions of higher education or receiving state funded scholarships. One particular and concerning issue is that the chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is mandated to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the federal government (ICE) regarding enforcement of federal immigration law. The new law also also allows for law enforcement personnel to be deputized and trained for these duties. According to AILA, the bill contains similar language to Oklahoma's Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 (H.B. 1804). 
established a Web site to assist employers comply with the new immigration law. But the new law mandates the Labor Department to investigate complaints against companies who are hiring illegal immigrants. According to the new law, South Carolina's Labor Department is also responsible for randomly auditing businesses to verify employees’ legal status. Businesses with 100 or more employees must comply by July1, 2009 and all other businesses must follow the law by July 1, 2010. The new Web site is www.llr.state.sc.us/immigration. Georgia also has a similar law. Is Florida next?
On June 24, 2008, The House Appropriations Committee approved a U.S. Department of Homeland Security funding bill for $39.9 billion. However, the bill also rejects an amendment to extend the federal electronic employment verification program or E-Verify..jpg)
The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council ("Councils") are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require certain contractors and subcontractors to use the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ ("USCIS") E-Verify system as the means of verifying that employees are eligible to work in the United States. Government agencies affected by the proposed are the Department of Defense (“DOD”), General Services Administration (“GSA”), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”). The proposed rule states: "This rule proposes to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) to require that certain contracts contain a clause requiring that the contractor and certain subcontractors utilize the E-Verify System to verify employment eligibility of all newly hired employees of the contractor or subcontractor and all employees directly engaged in the performance of work in the United States under those contracts." Stay tuned, this is just the beginning. 
(“the Order”) amending Executive Order 12989. The Order, an aggressive move to keep illegal immigrants out of the US workforce, requires contractors and others doing business with the federal government to use E-Verify (formerly known as the Basic Pilot or Employment Eligibility Verification Program). E-Verify is an electronic employment verification system run by DHS in partnership with the Social Security Administration, which permits participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of newly hired employees. E-Verify is voluntary for private companies, but mandatory for government agencies. The Order, which will also apply to new hires initially, in time, will affect millions of workers working for federal contractors nationwide. 
Interestingly, employers in the health care business using the Medicare program, janitorial services providing services to courts, universities getting federal student loans for its students or grants for some of its projects and programs, companies in the defense industry, and even contractors serving food in cafeterias in any government agency will be considered government contractors and will have to comply with this order. 