E-Verify at risk in California

I got this notice from the North Bay Minutemen:

If Arnold does not veto AB 1288 before Oct 1, then AB 1288 will become law in California.  AB 1288 prevents any city or county in California from requiring any business to use E-Verify.  If AB 1288 becomes law, CLEC, http://clecnovato.com, will be shut down, at least in the short term.

You have about 24 hours to tell Arnold to save E-Verify in California!

Send him an email, free fax, or printed letter at:

http://capwiz.com/caps/issues/alert/?alertid=14106466&type=SW

FYI, the Department of Homeland Security describes E-Verify as follows:

E-Verify (formerly the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program) is an online system operated jointly by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration (SSA). Participating employers can check the employment eligibility of new hires online by comparing information from an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, against SSA and Department of Homeland Security databases. More than 145,000 employers are enrolled in the program, with over 7.6 million queries run through the system in fiscal year 2009 (as of August 29, 2009).

E-Verify is free and voluntary, and is the best means available for determining employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers.

Sounds so sensible, doesn’t it?