California Employers are embracing the E-Verify or I-9 as a background check in order to determine which job applicants are eligible to work in the United States. With all the rancor about undocumented workers, or illegal immigrants, call it what you want, many savvy employers are looking to avoid government crackdowns by employing E-Verifying. In some states those employers who wittingly hire undocumented workers can have their businesses fined, or in extreme cases can lose their business licenses.
According to an article in the MercuryNews.com…”As a growing number of states require public and private employers to use E-Verify, California has gone out of its way to make it voluntary, passing a law this month that bans local governments from forcing firms to use electronic verification.
Still, the number of California job sites using E-Verify to scrutinize their workers — usually on the first few days on the job — increased by 37 percent to more than 90,000 from a year ago, according to government records. The state has more job sites using the electronic verification system than any other.”
Employers should be aware that employers must first offer the candidate the job before conducting the E-Verify or I-9. However, employers can conduct the Social Security Trace as a preemployment screening background check in order to determine if the job applicant would be eligible to work in this country.
