E-Verify

Issue Overview

E-Verify is a federal, online system to determine authorization to work in the U.S. Unfortunately, while E-Verify may not adversely affect some parts of the U.S. economy, it could have dire impacts on agriculture due to the lack of U.S. workers and the absence of a workable visa program. Requiring agricultural employers to use E-Verify without assuring that a workable guest worker program is in place could have a significant, negative impact on U.S. farm production, not only threatening the livelihoods of many farmers and ranchers in labor-intensive agriculture but jeopardizing as well the health of the rural economy, where agriculture plays an important role.

Farm Bureau opposes any mandate on employers to use E-Verify until an acceptable agriculture worker program is in place that provides for future flow of guest workers and allows work authorization for workers not currently authorized.

Background

The Immigration and Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) made it unlawful for employers to hire or employ individuals not authorized to work in the United States. Since that time, employers have been required to use the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Form I-9, which is completed by job applicants who submit the form to employers with specified documents that testify to their identity and work authorization. IRCA, however, prohibits employers from questioning the documents offered by applicants, and any employer who questions the documents offered by job applicants or refuses to hire based on reasonable-appearing documents can be sued, not only by the job applicant, but also by the Department of Justice. The Department of Agriculture website explicitly advises farmers that “Employers must accept any of the documents or combination of documents listed on the back of the INS Form I-9 to establish identity and employment eligibility.”

As a result of these policies instituted decades ago, use of fraudulent documents by workers has become prevalent, in agriculture and elsewhere. There have been bills introduced in the past that would mandate that employers use E-Verify and phase in the requirement over several years. For many agricultural producers, the requirement would begin in three years; for others, the requirement could start sooner. Most importantly, the legislation contains no worker program for agriculture – either in remedying problems with the H-2A program or in instituting any additional program to assist agricultural employers. If the mandatory E-Verify program goes forward by itself, without providing producers a source of legal workers, it would present a potentially insurmountable challenge for many agricultural employers.