Bill would require new system for IDs
Posted on Monday, January 12, 2009
Sample
State Rep. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, plans to introduce a bill this week that would require verification of Social Security numbers of employees before state agencies, local governments, universities and businesses issue identification cards to them.
Sample said that would help protect Arkansans from terrorists, preserve state resources and put more responsibility on employers to ensure that they are not hiring illegal aliens.
"It will establish proper guidelines for the issuance of identification cards and documents," Sample said. "We're trying to define who can give out identification cards and what those ID cards would state. We don't want those phony ID cards to go out. ... If you give them an ID card, you're responsible to do a little due diligence and make sure that person is in the state legally."
Sample said his bill isn't an attempt to bar illegal aliens from receiving any state services. He believes they should have access to health care but not welfare or in-state tuition rates at Arkansas colleges, which is cheaper than rates for out-state students.
Sample wants universities, businesses and governmental agencies to use the federal government's electronic employment verification system, E-Verify, to check Social Security numbers before issuing identification cards to employees or students. E-Verify is an online system operated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. It is administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
More than 87,000 employers currently use E-Verify, and more than 6.5 million queries were run through the system in 2008. EVerify can check the information on an employee's I-9 form with 444 million records in the Social Security Administration database, according to the Homeland Security Department's Web site. The I-9 is a form employers must file with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to verfy the identity of each employee and that those employees are eligible to work in the U.S.
Last year, by a vote of 407-to-2, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6633, which would have required all 7.4 million employers in the United States to use E-Verify and to fire workers who couldn't prove they had the right to work in this country. But the Senate never brought H.R. 6633 to the floor, instead debating additional visa provisions until adjourning. In June, President George Bush ordered federal contractors to participate in the E-Verify system. Arizona currently requires all employers to use E-Verify. Critics say the system's databases are flawed. And E-Verify can only determine whether a Social Security number is valid, not whether a person who is presenting the number for employment is the person who was issued the number by the Social Security Administration.
"This will prevent the granting of in-state tuition to people who don't have legal status," Sample said. "All that's doing is taking money away from some single parent who needs it."
Sample said officials at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and other state colleges confirmed last year that they weren't checking Social Security numbers before students are admitted. But on May 22, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education told university administrators that offering instate tuition to students residing in the country illegally could violate federal law. The UA began checking Social Security numbers at that time.
UA Registrar Alice Lacey said the Social Security numbers of potential students are now checked through a federal database called the National Student Clearing House.
"I'm not really familiar with EVerify," Lacey said. "I really don't know whether it is as helpful as a clearing house at identifying fraud."
Before the change last summer, to get in-state tuition, the UA only required a transcript from an Arkansas high school, assuming that the high school student was a legal resident of the state, said Steve Voorhies, a UA spokesman.
But after the UA began checking, it was determined that the university had 19 students who might be illegal aliens. That's out of a total of 19,191 students. The UA began a one-time, $400,000 fundraising campaign to help those students finish college at the in-state tuition rate, said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. Out-of-state tuition at the UA is $13,226 annually for 15 credit hours, compared with $4,772 for in-state tuition.
"If we've already got some time and money invested in them, I'm not trying to run anybody off," said Sample. "But in the future, they should be verified and pay out-of-state tuition."
Sample said he wants all employers in the state to use EVerify or a similar federal system to check on the work status of employees.
His bill states that they must use E-Verify "or an equivalent federal program designated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or any other federal agency authorized to verify the work eligibility status of a newly hired employee under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986."
"We've got to take and stop this one way or another," he said.
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
The Arkansas Office of Driver Services uses E-Verify when issuing driver's licenses and state identification cards. The system seems to work well, but there's a loophole, said Tonie Shields, an administrator in the office, which is in the Department of Finance and Administration.
Shields said temporary workers often come into the U.S., and ultimately to Arkansas, on a four-month visa to pick crops. They go to the Office of Driver Services for a state identification card. By law (Arkansas Code Annotated 27-16-1100), the ID card must be issued for four years. Documentation is required to get the card, but it's not required for the card to be renewed.
"If someone moves to the state or comes in for the first time, they have to prove legal presence," she said. "All we're allowed to give them is a four-year card. That is all the state statute allows us to do. They can renew it without any questions.
"What we have proposed, but it needs somebody to get behind it, is an end of stay. And that's the date that would go on the ID card. And we need authorization to review documents when that card is renewed. It's not that we want to overly burden the aliens, we just want our documents to be a legal ID for them."
Sample said his bill does propose an end date for all ID cards issued, and the bill requires that one year be the limit on ID cards. Sample said he wasn't aware of the situation with the state ID cards, but he thought his bill could rectify that situation.
Even with the Arkansas ID card, an alien would need a Social Security number or visa to work legally in the U.S.
HEALTH
Some state agencies provide services to aliens regardless of whether they have any type of documentation.
"It's important for us not to put up a barrier," said Ed Barham, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Health. "We don't want to turn away anyone who suspects they have a communicable disease or are otherwise ill. That's our mission: to protect the public health. ... Virtually any service offered by the Health Department is available to anyone who comes in, whether they have documentation or not."
In 2006, the state Department of Health estimated that it spent $199,340 providing services to illegal aliens that year. That included family planning, maternity care, treatment for tuberculosis, breast care, immunizations, and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.
Barham said he couldn't confirm or update that number.
"There's no process to check that right now," he said.
"I don't think we can actually stop too much of that," Sample said of the health department treating illegal aliens. "We have addressed that [in the bill]. But the federal government dictates some of that. We certainly don't want someone walking around spreading tuberculosis or anything like that."
HUMAN SERVICES
The Arkansas Department of Human Services provides one service for immigrants, including illegal aliens. Offered since 2004, the "unborn child" program under the State Children's Health Insurance Program is designed to cover prenatal care for women who otherwise wouldn't be eligible for Medicaid. Residents become eligible for Medicaid after they have been U.S. citizens for five years, said Julie Munsell, a spokesman for DHS.
In fiscal year 2008, which ended June 30, the program provided prenatal care to 3,760 women at a total cost of $11.2 million, or $2,980 per patient. The state's share of the total cost was $2.1 million in 2008. In 2007, the cost was $10.2 million, with the state paying $1.9 million of that amount. The remainder is paid by the federal government.
Sample said he has been working on the bill for the past six or eight months. It's patterned after the Oklahoma omnibus immigration law, which was passed last year. Sample said he met Wednesday with state Rep. Chris Benge, speaker of the House of Representatives in Oklahoma. He also consulted with The Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C. The federation wants to stop illegal immigration, improve border security and promote an immigration level of about 300,000 per year. Currently, about 1.1 million immigrants come to the U.S. every year, according to the organization.
Between 11 million and 12 million illegal aliens live in the U.S., according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. Nationwide, the number grew by more than 1.5 million annually in 1999 and 2000. The count grew by more than 500,000 annually from 2000-05, although some experts believe the numbers have fallen in the past year. Arkansas has 30,000 to 50,000 illegal aliens, according to a 2006 report by a Pew researcher.
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