E-Verify in North Carolina

North Carolina doesn't get the attention of Al-Jazeera very often, but Governor Bev Perdue signed a law requiring counties, cities, and employers to use E-Verify.  Here is the text of the bill.

I've written about E-Verify many times--here are some basic facts; here and here are some of its problems.  It is guaranteed that citizens or legal residents will get falsely flagged and employers will be burdened.

If there is one thing we've learned from the Immigration Reform and Control Act, it is that immigration laws--indeed, like any other laws--create certain unintended incentives for immigrants and employers alike.  In this particular bill, there are two important caveats that may well reduce the impact of the law.  In fact, one of the bill's sponsors believes that in its final form the law will only cover about 20% of the state's businesses.

First, the requirement does not apply to seasonal workers who are hired for 90 days or less during a 12 month consecutive period.  That could ease pressure on farms, and could create an incentive for workers to bounce around farms in a particular part of the state, leaving at the 90 day mark.

Second, it also does not apply to businesses with less than 25 employees.  That will exclude quite a few service industries--landscaping and house cleaning, for example--and could further encourage subcontracting, which is already happening.  If you go to a large company like Home Depot to purchase some service, like flooring, they will hire a <25 employee firm to do the actual work.

However, one concern about the bill is that it does not require employers to check current employees.  Thus, if an employee is in the country illegally, he or she has a strong incentive to remain in that position indefinitely, which means the employer can treat him or her very poorly with no accountability.

Stay tuned.