Mandated use of E-Verify in Arizona shows mixed results

PHOENIX — President Donald Trump has said he supports requiring employers nationwide to check that their workers are authorized to work in the United States, something that is already mandatory in Arizona.

In 2008, Arizona became the first state in the nation to require all employers to use a federal program called E-Verify to determine if their workers are allowed to work in the country. Arizona lawmakers pushed to get it approved, hoping it would open up jobs for legal residents and U.S. citizens.

A report by the Public Policy Institute of California found that the law approved in 2008 requiring the mandatory use of E-Verify in Arizona “was largely successful in meeting it’s goal of deterring unauthorized immigration to the state and preventing employment of unauthorized workers.”

By the end of the first year that E-Verify was made mandatory, Arizona’s undocumented population declined by about 17 percent. The undocumented workers who stayed, however, began finding other ways to work that didn’t require them to go through E-Verify. That includes working as contractors and day laborers.

The report also found “there is no evidence” that the law met its secondary goal of improving employment opportunities for those legally eligible to work in the U.S. Still, Trump expressed support for mandatory E-Verify while campaigning in Arizona last year.

“We will ensure that E-Verify is used to the fullest extent possible under existing law, and will work with Congress to strengthen and expand its use across the country,” Trump said in a speech about immigration.

Todd Landfried, executive director of the Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, said jobs have opened up in Arizona as a result of E-Verify preventing the employment of undocumented workers. But he said Americans aren’t taking them.

“You drive by a large job site and there are signs there that say they need electricians or plumbers or, at home construction sites, they need framers,” he said.

Landfried added there are jobs left unfilled in Yuma and other parts of the state where agriculture drives the local economy.

“You would think that if there were Americans who really needed jobs that bad that they would get in their cars and drive and locate to Yuma, so they could work on those jobs,” he said. “They don’t.”

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