Poll: Do you Support Governor-elect Chafee in Rescinding E-Verify, the Immigration Program

Poll: Do you Support Governor-elect Chafee in Rescinding E-Verify, the Immigration Program

Gov.-elect Lincoln Chafee recently announced that one his first actions as Governor will be to rescind an executive order on immigration initiated by Governor Donald Carcieri.

In 2008, Gov. Carcieri signed an executive order that requires state agencies and state vendors use a federal program to confirm new hires can work in the United States.

According to US Department of Homeland Security, the program is:

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E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on an employee's Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States. For most employers, the use of E-Verify is voluntary and limited to determining the employment eligibility of new hires only. There is no charge to employers to use E-Verify. The E-Verify system is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

More than 216,000 employers are enrolled in the program, with over 8.7 million queries run through the system in fiscal year 2009. There have been over 13 million queries run through the system in fiscal year 2010 (as of July 31, 2010).

E-Verify is mandatory for some employers, such as those employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause and employers in certain states.