ABC supports the reform of U.S. Immigration Policy to facilitate a sustainable workforce for the American economy while ensuring our national security and prosperity. Once the economy is restored, the construction industry will face an ever-growing problem of shortages, both of craft-professionals and legal laborers who have difficulty becoming citizens or obtaining the necessary work permits. Unfortunately, current immigration laws disproportionately affect construction companies due to their fluctuating work needs. 

E-Verify is a system that electronically verifies the employment eligibility of newly hired employees. As of Sept. 8, 2009, the federal government requires the use of E-Verify on all federal solicitations and contract awards. However, Congress has not mandated the use of E-Verify for all employers. 

ABC’s believes that the government should not target or prosecute employers that enroll in and properly use E-Verify. Good faith compliance should be an affirmative defense that the employer did not knowingly hire an undocumented worker. Before imposing any civil or criminal penalties, the government should be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the employer had actual knowledge that the employee circumvented the electronic verification system.

ABC opposes “cross-liability” provisions that hold employers accountable for the workers of other employers with whom they have contracts, subcontracts or other forms of exchange. Small employers are particularly ill-equipped to manage and keep track of the hiring and firing practices of other entities with which they have business relationships. Further, employers do not have the authority to hire or fire the employees of other companies or the legal right to access their personnel files. 

Additionally, allowing each state and locality to promulgate its own employment verification laws results in an unworkable legal patchwork and places an undue burden on employers. ABC believes employers need a uniform legal framework to alleviate confusion about their responsibilities under the law. To date, seventeen states have enacted E-Verify laws as a result of the lack of federal law and guidance. 

ABC will continue to work with Congress to create a reliable and efficient system for both employers and employees. 

• Reforming the nation’s immigration policy to facilitate a sustainable workforce for the American economy while ensuring national security.
• Securing the nation’s borders and enforcing current immigration laws.
• Creating a workable and reliable system that can be used by both large and small employers to determine an employee’s legal status.
• Creating a temporary worker program that will help the construction industry meet increasing labor demands.
• Creating a way for undocumented workers to gain legal work status.
• Adding meaningful “safe harbor” provisions to E-Verify and the Form I-9 requirements. Employers who comply in good faith when using the E-Verify system or Form I-9 should not be subject to an enforcement action by the government or a lawsuit by that employee. 

• Any policy that shifts the burden of policing citizenship documentation, such as Social Security cards and drivers’ licenses, to employers. The majority of ABC’s members firms are small businesses, which lack the time, resources, and expertise to effectively and conclusively determine whether they are being presented with fraudulent documents.
• “Cross-liability” provisions that hold employers accountable for the workers of other employers with whom they have contracts, subcontracts or other forms of exchange. 
• Any requirement to comply with two duplicative verification obligations. Should a reliable E-Verify system be implemented for a given class of employers, those employers should no longer be required to complete and retain paper I-9 forms (the paper-based employee eligibility verification form used for all new hires). Business owners who wish to retain paper copies of the electronic system’s confirmation of employment eligibility should be permitted to do so, and those paper copies should be sufficient evidence that employment evidence was verified.