States across the country are trying to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. According to a recent report by the National Council of State Legislatures, “as of July 2, 2007, no fewer than 1404 pieces of legislation related to immigrants and immigration had been introduced among the 50 state legislatures.�
A number of states, like Arizona, have turned to sanctioning employers who are caught hiring illegal immigrants. Leaving aside the policy implications of whether businesses should play the role of immigration police (the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council is definitely opposed to that approach), there is a practical problem with these new laws. They have the real potential to catch innocent employers who relied on what seemed to be valid identification documents . . . even if those documents were fakes. And authorities are concerned that the laws could spur an increase in the identity theft of authentic numbers.
Employers already have a federal obligation to ensure that every employee fills out Form I-9 and provides proof of identity. The Bush administration has announced new rules subjecting employers to prosecution if they don’t fire workers whose names and Social Security numbers don’t match. But, as reported by Daniel Gonzalez in the Arizona Republic,Â
“the database [with that information] can’t flag documents made with stolen identities, where the names and numbers match. As a result, a proliferation of fraudulent IDs, combined with identity theft, could undercut the employer-sanctions law.â€?Â
All the more reason that you should take extra steps to verify the identity of potential hires, including checking references, cross-referencing identities against state databases (when available), and asking for multiple forms of identification. Consult your attorney to develop a hiring procedure that both protects your company and ensures you won’t have to reinvent the wheel with each new employee you want to bring on.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Employees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.One Response to “New Hiring Law Spurs Identity Theft Fears”
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August 26th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Very interesting to read how Form i-9 is required. Any idea on the compliance rate?
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