Worried Your Contractor Hires Illegal Aliens? Do this.

Picking a company to do your landscaping, roofing, painting, or other assorted jobs has always involved evaluating reputation, experience, quality, and price. It still does, but now with 18.6 million illegal aliens residing in the U.S., determining just exactly who is doing the work has become more complicated.

Unless and until Congress mandates that all U.S. employers use the federal E-Verify program to screen each new hire’s work eligibility, illegal aliens will continue to be a common fixture in contracting companies. This should concern you given that “illegal” refers to individuals who have not been given permission to enter the country, let alone be on your property, or in your house. Nor have they been subject to criminal background checks or screened for vaccines and communicable diseases.

The issue is compounded by the fact that many small contracting companies employ day-laborers sourced from Home Depot, Lowes, and convenience store parking lots. Resulting problems range from minor irritations due to incommunicability, “Hey you just mowed over my rose bushes” while receiving a blank stare with the predicable “No hablo inglés,” to more serious complications arising when contracting staff make dangerous installation errors because they may not be familiar with, nor can even read, U.S. building, electrical, and plumbing codes. Moreover, anyone with a criminal background intending nefarious acts (and who really knows without proper screening) will have an opportunity to case your property.  

So, what is to be done? As is often the case, knowledge is power, and there is an at-home remedy arming you against unscrupulous employers who hire those who have no legal right to be employed in the U.S.

First, express your concerns that having illegal aliens on your job site is unacceptable. Some firms may scoff at this, at which point it’s time to simply walk away. After all, if a contractor doesn’t have enough integrity to hire legal workers, then you are dealing with an unscrupulous company relying on, and exploiting, sub-wage underground labor. What other parts of the job are likely to be on the cheap?

Second, ask your contractor specifically how they verify the legal status of their hires. They get this question on occasion so most contractors are quick to give a pro forma answer: We “I-9 everyone.” This refers to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Employee Eligibility Verification process that requires new employees to provide documents proving they have the right to work. While this sounds convincing, the problem is that there is widespread counterfeiting of identity papers and theft of Social Security numbers, potentially affecting nearly 40 million Americans. Because of that, even honest employers who earnestly use the I-9 process don’t have time, or the expertise, to adequately verify the authenticity of government-issued identification or work authorization documents.

So far, this is more than most folks ask so give yourself credit. That said, it’s time to press the matter further. Ask if the company uses E-Verify, and if not, why not? E-Verify is the benchmark of worksite authorization, offering an effective electronic alternative to the old paper-based I-9 system. Social Security numbers or alien identification numbers of new hires are checked against government records to weed out the duplicative and fraudulent.

Businesses (those who really do want to avoid hiring illegal workers) depend on E-Verify. It’s fast, free, and easy to use, and it means that a company is no longer expected to be document experts. When a company uses E-Verify, the liability of determining the legal status of an employee is placed on the U.S. government, not the employer. So if a mistake is made, the employer is off the hook – provided it was using E-Verify.

There is no reason whatsoever for any company large or small not to use E-Verify … unless they’d prefer hiring that motley crew at 7-11.

Finally, should you want to prove beyond verbal assurances that a company is enrolled in E-Verify, it’s a simple matter of asking to see their Memorandum of Understanding Agreement. It’s your right to scrutinize the hiring policies of those you deal with, and nothing prohibits a company from sharing this document. You’re asking for hiring policies, not personally identifying information.

Remember, even if a company claims to comply with the law using the I-9 process, that’s not a guarantee their employees have lawful status. But, to be fair, it’s a lot better than many small firms that do nothing.  However, E-Verify is the gold standard for weeding out unauthorized workers.

Admittedly it can be uncomfortable to ask and press the matter while evaluating the honesty of the answer, especially when contractors are dismissive, or provide overly-complex explanations.

Tip: “We use E-Verify and never hire anyone who isn’t approved” is the succinct, confident answer most likely to be true.

It may turn out you don’t know for certain … but at least you inquired. And if enough do, perhaps over time contractors will get the message that not hiring illegals and using E-Verify is the competitive equivalent to the classic Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Maybe in the process of getting things fixed around our homes by authorized workers, we’ll be fixing our illegal immigration crisis as well by shutting off the jobs magnet.

Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel at the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.