State Agriculture Department started following 2007 immigration law in 2012

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia Agriculture Department confirmed Monday that it is now using a federal program to check whether its new employees are eligible to work in the U.S. after failing to use the system as required by state law for years.

At issue is a state law aimed at blocking state and local government agencies from hiring illegal immigrants.

The state’s law — which took effect in July 2007 — requires government agencies to use E-Verify, a free online employment eligibility program. The Agriculture Department did not start using the program until April 2012, said Steve Blando, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which helps administer E-Verify.

As first reported by The Associated Press, the state agency’s error came to light in a recent state audit. The audit revealed the agency did not immediately use the system to check its new hires.

A spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department said Monday that her agency is now using E-Verify.

“We are currently in the process of going through and making sure that everybody who is at the Department of Agriculture has been E-Verified,” Mary Kathryn Yearta said. “This is an embarrassing discovery that escaped several levels of management audits, and we are taking all steps to rectify.”

E-Verify works by checking information employees provide on a document — called an I-9 — against records held in federal Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration databases.

In 2011, the state Legislature passed a law expanding the use of E-Verify to cover many private employers. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that 325,000 illegal immigrants held jobs in Georgia in 2010.

Tommy Irvin served as the state’s elected agriculture commissioner when the law requiring government agencies to use E-Verify went into effect. Irvin could not be reached for comment. Gary Black replaced Irvin in 2011. Black indicated he supported mandatory E-Verify when he testified before Congress in February.

“Legal service reform, housing vouchers, expanded eligibility and transferring authority to USDA (the U.S. Department of Agriculture) are ideas that warrant immediate consideration,” he told the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. “These proposals and others must not compete with, but should be complemented by mandatory E-Verify, in my view.”

John Litland of Marietta, a member of the Dustin Inman Society, which advocates enforcement of U.S. immigration and employment laws, bemoaned the state agency’s error.

“I find it appalling that a government agency would not enforce the law of the state,” he said. “Why it takes five years to do that is unfathomable. It’s crazy.”

Original Article HEre