Illinois enacted a law requiring that the federal database of information on immigration and work authorization status, now called E-Verify and formerly called Basic Pilot, must have a data accuracy rate of 99% before Illinois employers can use it.   On Monday the federal government filed a lawsuit against the State of Illinois to block implementation of the law, which is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2008.

Participation in the E-Verify program is voluntary for most employers.  The system allows an employer to submit the names of newly hired employees to a database to confirm their work status.  The database has been riddled with inaccuracies, erroneously reporting that many lawful employees are not authorized to work.  According to a 2006 report by the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, 17.8 million of the records in the Social Security Administration's database contain discrepancies, 12.7 million of which refer to U.S. citizens.  As a result, in some cases, even U.S. citizens are reported as ineligible to work.   

Inaccurate data is not the only problem with the system.  A 2006 Government Accountability Office analysis of the Department of Homeland Security's system for tracking immigrants' "Alien Files" (the primary type of record for non-citizens in the United States) found that as many as four percent of all records could not be located.

Finally, some employers have used the E-Verify system to engage in illegal pre-employment screening.  Others took illegal action against employees who received tentative non-confirmation results through the system - an evaluation of the E-Verify system in 2006 showed that some employers restricted work assignments, delayed training, reduced pay, required longer hours of work, or forced these employees to work in poor conditions.  Finally, some employers failed to inform workers of their rights under the program.  Officials of the Department of Homeland Security have admitted that they have conducted weak oversight of employers participating in the program. 

For these reasons, Illinois determined that its employers should not participate in the program until the database demonstrates a high degree of accuracy, thereby aiding employers and helping to shield employees from worksite abuses. 

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed the bill into law on August 13 after it passed the legislature with bipartisan support. The bill received support from business and labor organizations.

"We have no problem with the program, but the program needs to be accurate," Tim Bell of the Chicago Workers' Collaborative, which helped pass the statute, told The New York Times.

The lawsuit claims that the state law is unconstitutional because it preempts federal law.  The case will be heard in federal district court.