Lakewood could become the first city or other government in Washington to require its contractors to confirm the legal status of their new hires.
The city is discussing whether to require those businesses to register with the federal E-Verify system, which runs a person’s background against records from the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Lakewood leaders also would run the city’s new employees through the system, and require organizations that receive grants of money from the city to do the same.
The Lakewood City Council is scheduled to discuss the item Monday, and could vote on it May 18.
The city said it knows of no other government in Washington that requires contractors to register with E-Verify, even though the system is offered to companies and public bodies nationwide.
The decision could thrust Lakewood, one of the South Sound’s most diverse cities, into the middle of the immigration debate.
City Councilman Don Anderson said he understands that, but he and his colleagues want to make sure residents’ tax dollars end up in the pockets of people who are allowed to work here.
“I fully realize this might be a lightning-rod issue,” he said. It already has prompted responses from people on both sides of the immigration debate.
For one side, it’s a step toward the goal of stopping undocumented foreigners from coming into the U.S. and competing against U.S. citizens for hard-won jobs.
“It’s time we took control of our country again,” said Leon Donahue, a member of Washingtonians for Immigration Reform, during a public comment period while the Lakewood City Council discussed E-Verify on April 27.
“I hope you are the first city in the state to use it,” he added.
For the other side, E-Verify has too many flaws, and a bigger, more sweeping overhaul of the U.S. immigration system is needed.
“The thing we don’t want is a system where people who are allowed to work in this country are going to be rejected,” said Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle. “We’re talking about people’s livelihoods here.”
Adopted by Congress in 1997, E-Verify is intended to give employers confidence that their workers can legally work in the U.S., according to Immigration Services spokeswoman Sharon Rummery, who is based in the agency’s San Francisco office. The free service initially was offered in five states, then eventually to all 50. It works like this:
Employers agree to run all new employees through E-Verify within 72 hours of hiring them. Results are returned immediately for about 96 percent of applicants, she said. The 4 percent that aren’t go through more checks by the federal government. Rummery said if the records don’t match after that, the government informs employers, who must decide whether to continue with the hire.
Enrolled employers that fail to register new workers with E-Verify could face penalties or fines, although that doesn’t happen often, she said.
“E-Verify is for the good of the employer,” Rummery said. “There wouldn’t be anything to gain for them to sign up for E-Verify and not use it.”
In Lakewood, officials said they want to hold their contractors, employees and grant recipients to the same standards applied by the federal government.
Pierce County’s second-largest city is known for its diversity. According to the 2005-07 American Community Survey, whites made up 59 percent of the population. Blacks made up 11 percent, Asian-Pacific Islanders 12 percent, Latinos 11 percent and American Indians 1 percent. Almost 5 percent considered themselves two or more races.
The same federal survey found that of the city’s more than 9,000 foreign-born residents, half were naturalized citizens.
But Anderson said city leaders didn’t start the E-Verify discussion because of Lakewood’s demographics. A few city officials suggested bringing the item up for discussion.
Baron, with Northwest Immigrant rights, said Lakewood needs to study E-Verify and what he calls its ongoing problems. He pointed to a 2008 federal Government Accountability Office report that showed the system has flaws, such as an inability to detect document fraud by employees. Rummery said the government addressed that by offering a photo-identification option for employers.
It’s difficult for the system to track employer fraud and misuse, and the system itself has generated false reports, according to the GAO report. “We have been skeptical of those efforts because of serious questions raised with E-Verify,” Baron said.
But Anderson, who supports legal immigration, said the federal government has confidence in the system, as do Lakewood officials.
Now the question is whether they have enough confidence in E-Verify to make it a mandatory screening tool. “It is a great tool to combat identity theft,” Anderson said. “It assures citizens that where public funding is being used for services, the people are allowed to get it.”
Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653
brent.champaco@thenewstribune.com
Council discussion
WHAT: Lakewood City Council discusses E-Verify system.
WHEN: 7 p.m., Monday.
WHERE: Lakewood City Hall, 6000 Main St. SW.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
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