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Background Checks

After Effects of the New Arizona Immigration Law

The new Arizona law is a quizzical one and certainly a hot button issue.  Passions are hot and everyone has an opinion.    Many believe it is about time, as the federal government has done little to seal the borders.  Others believe it is a draconian law, racist even, and that it stimulate the kind or oppression we do not need in America.

I really don’t want to discuss the law.  Enough folks are doing so already.    No need for me to crowd the room.  What I do want to do is to remind everyone that if you are a government contractor and you are doing business with federal services or companies that federal contractors, then as of the early part of this year you are mandated to conduct the E-verify or I-9 Verification search to assure your employment candidate is eligible for employment in the United States.  Failure to run the E-verify or I-9 may result in the loss of your government contracts.  This is now federal law and as such it will be enforced.

Be aware you can conduct the E-Verify search, you must formally offer your job applicant the position.  You can not run the E-Very as a background check and part of the pre-employment screening.  It must be conducted after you offer the position.  What you can do, as part of your pre-employment screening program, is conduct the Social Security Verification background check to see if the job candidate’s social security number is valid and it belongs to him.

Prior to this new law that was passed in Arizona, Arizona was the first state in the union to mandate that every employer conduct the E-Verify or I-9 verification on all employment candidates, where they are government contractors or not.

I have blogged about both of these issues in a post back in December, ’09 entitled, Changes to E-Verify and I-9.

And to eveyrone out there, a Happy Cinco De Mayo.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.

2 replies on “After Effects of the New Arizona Immigration Law”

Isn’t this law basically a copy of existing federal law? Obviously the people of Arizona are alarmed at the rate of illegal immigrants that are spilling over their border with Mexico into the state. So what are they to do? Just sit back while the whole state implodes? It is clear the feds have no intention of honoring their duty to secure the border. So Arizona has to take these measures. It is a sad situation all around.