The Federal Government Sues Illinois to use E-Verify

The Federal Government Sues Illinois to Allow Employers to Use E-Verify
Last Monday, the federal government sued the State of Illinois to strike down a state law making it illegal for employers to use the federal government's E-Verify program. "E-Verify" is the new name for "Basic Pilot," currently a volunteer program that permits employers to verify the legal status of job applicants electronically. According to DHS, by August of this year, the program had been used by over 22,000 employers, who had sent nearly 3 million queries for verification of employment eligibility to the agency. Nearly 93 percent of these queries were answered within one day. The remainders received tentative non-confirmations. Under E-Verify a worker can challenge a non-confirmation, which takes about a week or sometimes longer for DHS to resolve. The legislation passed by Illinois makes it illegal for businesses in the state to use E-Verify until 99 percent of E-Verify results can be returned within 3 days of a request.

The complaint filed by Homeland Security asserts that the Illinois statute is in clear violation the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV, Section 2), which declares that federal law trumps any contrary state or local law. As stated by Secretary Chertoff, "What we can't do when we pass a federal law is have the states decide they want to modify that law." Crystal Williams, Deputy Director for Programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called the lawsuit filed by DHS selective enforcement, noting that a number of states and localities have enacted laws directed at stopping illegal immigration, describing them as "clearly violations of the supremacy clause." According to Chertoff, the federal government has finally decided to go on the offensive. Noting that he understood the message of the defeat of the Bush-Kennedy Amnesty Bill, Chertoff remarked, "We will vigorously contest any effort to impede our enforcement efforts." (New York Times, September 25, 2007; Chicago Tribune, September 25 2007)