County Commissioners To Consider E-Verify To Confirm Employment Status

The Highlands County commissioners agreed Tuesday to discuss using the federal E-Verify system to check the legal employment status of county employees and people working for companies with a county contract.

No date has been scheduled yet, but commissioners said they will discuss the issue at a future workshop during one of their Tuesday commission meetings.

The commissioners have instructed County Administrator Michael Wright to investigate how E-Verify works and recommend whether the county should use it.

Bill Youngman asked the county to use E-Verify to ensure that illegal immigrants are not working for private firms with a county contract. He said the issue will be particularly important when the county goes ahead next year with construction of an $11-million law enforcement building for the sheriff's office.

E-Verify is a free service run jointly by the federal Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

According to Homeland Security's Web site, employers participating in E-Verify can check the work status of new hires online and compare information given by a worker on his of her application with Social Security and Homeland Security data bases.

More than 69,000 employers use E-Verify and have made more than 4 million inquiries so far this year, according to Homeland Security's web site.

Wright said the biggest question for the county is enforcement.

"That's my basic question, if violations are found, do we terminate a contract?" Wright asked.

"That's the type of issue," he added, "that needs to be discussed at a workshop."