A Tacoma-based labor-staffing company has entered a partnership with federal immigration officials to ensure it doesn’t hire illegal workers.

TrueBlue Inc. – which employs more than 600,000 people, including about 300,000 new hires annually – joined the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers program, or IMAGE.

Tuesday’s announcement was the culmination of a yearlong process involving training and auditing of hiring practices, said Joanna Monroe, TrueBlue vice president and chief compliance officer.

“We set ourselves as a compliance leader in this industry,” she said, “so we want to be the first to reach out to government to become more compliant.”

TrueBlue provides temporary workers for industries such as construction and manufacturing. To qualify for the IMAGE program, TrueBlue submitted to an intensive audit of its I-9 employment eligibility documents – forms filled out by job applicants to verify that they are able to work in this country.

Companies seeking membership in the program enrolled in a Social Security number verification service, agreed to adhere to a code of employment practices and agreed to use the E-Verify program, which allows employers to access a database of Social Security numbers and immigration records to check information on I-9 forms.

With employment that requires little skill and lends itself to high turnover rates, TrueBlue’s potential for hiring unauthorized workers is high.

“We’ve got thousands of people coming in each month looking for work,” Monroe said. “So what we had to do is open the door and let them audit our I-9s for our thousands and thousands and thousands of applicants. They made sure our processes were correct, and we received feedback on our policies.”

Thirty-seven companies or associations became full or associate members Tuesday, including two others in the Puget Sound region: Bellevue-based beverage distributor The Odom Corp. and Sedro-Woolley based construction firm Accuwest Pacific.

Monroe said the legal status of workers is of particular concern for many TrueBlue clients – especially given the intense debate over immigration reform in recent years.

Assurances that the work force is authorized to work in the United States is a major motivation for companies to join the program, said Julie Myers, the assistant secretary of homeland security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We found that some companies find it useful – particularly a temporary employment agency and the like – that they can say, ‘We’re IMAGE certified. We know who’s in our work force, and those folks are authorized to work in the United States,’” Myers said during a conference call with reporters.

But there are also practical reasons for joining: Immigration provided training to about 3,000 employees, and TrueBlue receives a two-year respite from further audits.

But while TrueBlue works with federal officials to ensure it doesn’t higher illegal workers, it publicly supports reform that would give undocumented immigrants who work “street-corner jobs,” or off-the-books work for cash that doesn’t provide the safety afforded citizens and legal immigrants.

“We support some method of getting these 11 to 12 million undocumented workers the right to work,” Monroe said. “Because right now, those poor folks are going to street corners. They’re not getting the protection of workman’s compensation, wage and hour laws, and equal employment protection.

“Our position is that we support immigration reform. But at the same time, the federal government has made these immigration laws, and we have to comply with them. And if we’re going to do that, we’re going to do that as well as possible.”

Scott Fontaine: 253-320-4758

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