From the Law Office of Barran Liebman:
On December 3, 2102, an Oregon homecare provider and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement agreement on claims of discrimination in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”). The claims stemmed from the employer’s use of E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility for a new employee. E-Verify is the Internet-based program maintained by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that compares data provided on an individual’s Form I-9 to data in the Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) and Social Security Administration’s (“SSA”) records on the same individual.
In this case, the employer received a “Tentative Nonconfirmation” (“TNC”) notice, which means the data on the Form I-9 for the individual was different from either DHS or SSA records for the individual. In response to the TNC, the employer violated the INA in three ways: First, it failed to provide a copy of the TNC to the employee, which would have presented the employee with an opportunity to contest the mismatched data. Second, the employer demanded the employee produce an alien card or naturalization papers to show proof of employment eligibility; however, an employer is not permitted to request a specific identity document from an employee. Finally, the employer did not allow the employee to start working while contesting the TNC, which is required by the INA. As result, the employer agreed to pay a $1,210 fine, $525 in back wages and to be monitored by the Justice Department for eighteen months.
