Recently on his campaign website, former mayoral candidate Winston Edmondson alleged that the City of Lewisville was hiring illegal aliens via the contractor it chose for the Serendipity Village street improvement. Edmondson went down to the worksite at Kent Dr., and attempted to speak to some workers, whom he says he could not understand. Based on the inability to understand them – and one would presume that the workers in question probably appeared to be Hispanic – Edmondson leaps to the conclusion that they must be illegal.
"Not a single worker spoke English. When I attempted to ask the workers at Kent Dr. just a few days ago, I was again thrust into a modern day Babel, as I could not understand a single worker. Imagine if there were some emergency at the site. The English speaking residents wouldn't be able to communicate with any of the workers. That's not good.
As citizens, we've been asking our city leaders to do something about our illegal alien problem and we've been told that the city is doing everything it can do. We know that's not true. I thought they were simply being negligent, but now I see that they're actually complicit."
To Edmondson’s credit, he called the general contractor on the job, Gilco Contracting, Inc. to inquire about their employment eligibility verification methods. When the H.R. manager at Gilco confirmed that they do not use the optional E-Verify program, Edmondson asked if it was likely that any of their workers were undocumented. The answer, according to Edmondson, was “Well, yeah. I mean, we don’t really know. That’s just the way it is in this industry.”
E-Verify
E-Verify is an optional online system provided by the Department of Homeland Security, allowing employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility for newly-hired employees. The system works by matching the information provided by the employee on their Employment Eligibility Verification Form (Form I-9) with information kept in the databases of the Social Security Administration and Immigration and Customs. E-Verify is scheduled to be mandatory for companies bidding on Federal contracts.
The E-Verify system has drawn some criticism because of the inaccuracy of the Social Security and DHS databases. Record inaccuracies are common for naturalized citizens, but occasionally even for native-born citizens the errors could cause a legal worker to be flagged as a mismatch. In one study, DHS found that a substantial number of employers were not following E-Verify rules that were designed to protect citizens.
The system is free for employers to use, but they must first execute a Memorandum of Understanding where the employer becomes obligated to use E-Verify in addition to the I-9 system, but with a few exceptions related to accepting and photocopying photo ID. E-Verify is explicitly NOT to be used for any purpose other than establishing employment eligibility for newly hired employees. Employers who use the system for other purposes are subject to fines.
Gilco
We contacted Gilco and spoke to the owner, Dale Gilreath, who was frustrated with the accusation, given that his company complies with all federal laws and pays market wages as required by city contracts.
Gilco had been contacted several weeks ago by the city’s purchasing manager who was investigating the accusation in the blog. WhosPlayin obtained the responses from Gilco, the highlights of which are listed below:
1. The Gilco employee that Edmondson spoke with thought that Edmondson had represented himself as a City employee.
2. Gilco states that it complies with the requirements of the Immigration and Naturalization Act and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity employer. As such, they do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, ethnic background, handicap, or Vietnam veteran status.
3. The College Street Project is not a Gilco project Edmondson’s pictures were not of crews on that job.
4. Gilco pays its employees at or above the required pay scale and furnishes the City of Lewisville with certified payrolls.
5. The employee pictured at the Gilco truck speaks English.
6. Gilco’s Project Manager, Superintendents, and Foremen all speak English and are trained to deal with emergencies.
7. Gilco does not hire day laborers from Huffines Plaza.
8. The project should finish on schedule in spite of a very wet spring.
9. Kent Rd. was left unexcavated and unfinished in order to facilitate traffic flow in the area.
I-9 Form
During the hiring process, employers are in most cases NOT allowed to ask whether a prospective employee is a citizen, but they may only ask whether the employee is authorized to work in the United States.
Employers are required under federal law to complete a Form I-9 and keep it on file for each employee. The I-9 specifies a list of documents acceptable for employment, at least one of which must establish identity, and another which must establish eligibility to work. Only a U.S. Passport serves as proof of both identity and eligibility to work. Other identity documents would be a driver’s license, state-issued ID, or several others. Eligibility to work is shown by a Social Security Card, “green card”, or other valid work visa. Employers ONLY check this Identification after hiring, and may not specify which ID they will accept or not accept.
As long as the employee provides reasonably valid-looking identity and eligibility documents, an employer needs to accept the documentation at face value. What may happen, if the documents are faked, is that the Social Security Administration would return a so-called “No Match” letter to the employer stating that the employee specified has a discrepancy in the system, and requiring the employer to obtain new documents or terminate the employee if documentation cannot be obtained.
The I-9 process is easy for employers, but puts the burden of proof on the federal government to detect and remedy any discrepancy. Employers do not submit the I-9 to the federal government, but rather keep these on file in the case of an audit.
Gilco has had 2 no-match letters in the past two years, both of which related to Hispanic employees whose names were not entered correctly in government computers, and which were cleared up.
Competitive pressures could work against employers who want to go the extra mile by using E-Verify. Since an illegal alien could conceivably work for months without detection using the I-9 system, but is most likely to get caught within a few days if the employer using E-Verify, employers who want to skirt the law are unlikely to use E-Verify. This would give those employers an unfair advantage in hiring from a cheaper labor pool. Any employer using E-Verify will have to compete with those who don’t use it and can get cheaper labor.
On the other hand, using E-Verify provides a rebuttable presumption of innocence if a verified employee is later found to be working illegally.
Making E-Verify Mandatory
While the Federal Government does have E-Verify requirements for its employees, it is not clear whether it would be legal for municipalities to require E-Verify as a condition of its contractors. At least 7 states currently require contractors to use E-Verify and 6 states use it for their own employees. The State of Texas falls into neither group.
Even if it were a mandatory requirement from the city, they may have some trouble getting a sufficient number of compliant companies to bid on a project unless many cities did it.
We asked Gilco whether they would sign up for E-Verify if cities like Lewisville made it mandatory, and the answer was that they probably would bite the bullet and get it done, but that they would rather see it become mandatory across-the-board at a state or federal level.
Our Take
The Federal Government made a terrible mistake in not having established a more robust system of identity. The fact that Social Security numbers have only nine digits, and are issued sequentially with no check digit makes it difficult to maintain data integrity. It’s a problem that any systems analyst worth his salt would have solved by adding one or more check digits, such as the Luhn check digit algorithms used for credit cards and many other systems. Whereas a computerized system can easily detect 99% of data entry errors created when entering a credit card number just by performing math on the number, there are very few rules about what makes a valid Social Security Number.
Because the Social Security number became the basis for tracking the records of people, it has caused myriad problems, not the least of which is identity theft. Government databases make use of the number as a key field, usually in combination with last name, first name, and date of birth. The problem there is that birth dates can be entered incorrectly or transposed. This problem is especially prevalent when dealing with immigrants from countries where dates may be written differently than in the U.S. For example the date 03.04.09. Is that March 4th, 2009; April 9th, 2003; or April 3rd, 2009?
Names are also tricky. People with hyphenated last names, multiple middle names, or names that do not neatly fit the conventional “first middle last” naming scheme may find that a data entry clerk somewhere misspells their name. Others may simply find data entry errors for no reason at all. My name is a very simple, normal American name: “Stephen”. Yet when I received my first Social Security Card as a young teenager, it said “Itephen” (The “S” replaced with an “I”) Inexplicably, another card showed up later with the same number, but my name was spelled correctly.
Making it even more difficult is the fact that the majority of American women will take the last name of their husband upon getting married.
Add to all of the above that keeping track of immigrants and their visa status in real time can be difficult.
What we need is a better system of identification and credentialing in this country. When that happens many of the errors that could mistakenly cause a non-match in a system like E-Verify will go away.
But on the balance, we think that the E-Verify system is a good idea that levels the playing field and moves the burden of enforcement back where it belongs with the Federal Government rather than millions of employers. Many of the problems that were present with some of the early trials of the system have been ironed out, and protections are in place to solve problems with inaccurate data.
So, if it is legally allowable to do so, we think the City of Lewisville should work with other area cities to implement an area-wide mandatory usage of E-Verify for employers that bid on contracts with the City. By banning together as an area, we would have enough collective power to basically pressure any local contractors to go ahead and switch to the system or risk losing business in the region.
Regarding Mr. Edmondson's assertion that the City is indirectly hiring illegal aliens, we find that to be dubious at best. But we would agree that adding the E-Verify requirement to future contracts with certain City vendors would be something to look at.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2009/6/18 18:36 Updated: 2009/6/18 18:50
Re: Lewisville Hiring Illegal Aliens?
Once again Winston Edmondson does not portray all the facts. As explained to him at the recent council meeting Monday night by the City Manager, contractors are required to use a verification method for hiring their workers. The City does not hire illegal aliens. The City Manager also explained to Winston posing as a city employee from the HR department was not a good thing to do. You are welcome to view the city council meeting involving these issues by watching Channel 16 on cable covering city council meeting and drawing your own conclusions
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Anonymous
Posted: 2009/6/18 20:46 Updated: 2009/6/18 21:30
Re: Lewisville Hiring Illegal Aliens?
Yes, be sure to watch the city council meeting. Our new mayor shows a little bit of his true colors. Like when he basically tells Winston to shut up. After Winston's initial comments, the city manager brought up those accusations. Watch what happens when Winston attempts to respond to the accusations. It sure would have been nice to see what he had to say.
Approximately 29:45 into the video is when Winston Edmondson speaks on item #7.
One thing that City Manager Claude King mentions is that the city has the authority to audit the contractors' I-9 records.
The Mayor did cut off Mr. Edmondson fairly abruptly when Edmondson tried to respond about 32:21. It seemed to me fairly uncharacteristic of Mayor Ueckert, but I can understand the need to maintain order and not allow a bunch of back and forth with speakers. It is a public meeting, and the Mayor presides, so ideally, if someone feels a need to address the council, it's a good idea to ask the Mayor for permission first.
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Re: Lewisville Hiring Illegal Aliens?
