E-Verify Update in Rhode Island, South Carolina and Oklahoma

Various states have passed legislation or issued Executive Orders mandating E-Verify participation for public employers, state government contractors, or even all employers in the state.  The court decision upholding Arizona’s law requiring all employers to use E-Verify strongly suggests these state efforts will be found valid.  Here are updates on developments over the past month:

• Rhode Island’s Executive Order requiring state executive branch employees and state contractors to use E-Verify can proceed to implementation.  The September 15 decision of a Rhode Island court denied the request for a temporary restraining order delaying implementation.  However, the court did indicate that the state must undertake a rulemaking process and cannot penalize an employer for failure to comply with the requirement until such final rule takes effect;
• Oklahoma appealed on August 25 to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to enable enforcement of the law requiring state governments and state government contractors to use E-Verify.  A federal district court judge previously issued a preliminary injunction on June 4 preventing enforcement of the E-Verify requirement in the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act; and
• South Carolina’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) initiated the rulemaking process for its new law requiring employers to either use E-Verify OR require presentation of a driver’s license issued by a state with license requirements at least as strict as those in South Carolina.  DLLR published a notice on August 22 seeking comments related to the law which will require employers with 100 or more workers to follow these verification procedures starting July 1, 2009.  All other employers have until July 1, 2010 to comply.

Once again, employers need to be mindful of the requirements in all states in which they operate. 

Note: This article was published in the September 2008 issue of the Immigration eAuthority.