E-Verify Program Data Collections

ATTACHMENT C:

ADVANCE LETTERS FOR CASE STUDIES OF DESIGNATED AGENTS

AND THEIR USERS

• Authorization letter from USCIS for interviews with Designated Agents (DAs) and Users of Designated Agents (UDAs)

• Westat cover letter for interviews with DAs and UDAs

J

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Office of the Director

Washington, DC 20529-2000

une 2010

Dear E-Verify User:

This letter confirms that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has authorized Westat, an independent social science research company, to conduct an evaluation of the E-Verify Program administered jointly by USCIS and the Social Security Administration. As part of this evaluation, Westat will conduct telephone interviews with a selected sample of Designated Agents (DAs) and employers that use designated agents. To protect the confidentiality of participants, we do not know which employers or designated agents Westat has selected and are, therefore, not sending individual letters to these selected companies. However, it is our hope that all companies will cooperate with Westat.

The goals of the Westat evaluation are to understand why employers decide to use DAs and how they learn about them, what services are provided by DAs, how DAs and their clients communicate, and to ask for suggestions on how the DA process might be improved. Your participation in this evaluation will be an important factor in the future direction of employment verification in this country.

We have told Westat to treat all information gathered from employers and DAs as highly confidential, to the extent permitted by law. Westat will only provide us and other USCIS staff who are not part of the evaluation team with summary results. These summaries will not permit identification of either individual or corporate responses.

A staff member from Westat will be contacting you by telephone to ask you to participate in this important evaluation, entitled the Study of Employment Eligibility (SEE). I would very much appreciate your full cooperation with his or her request.

On behalf of USCIS, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation in E-Verify. If you have any concerns regarding the evaluation, please call Natasha McCann, Program Manager, at (202) 272-8122.

Sincerely,

Tiffany Lightbourn, Ph.D.

Chief, Research and Evaluation Division

Office of Policy and Strategy

Dear Employer:

Westat, a social science research company in Rockville, Maryland, is working with the U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to evaluate the E-Verify Program, an Internet-based system used by participating employers to determine the employment eligibility of new hires and for some federal contractors and additional employees. Westat will conduct several telephone interviews with designated agents (DAs) and users of designated agents (UDAs) to better understand how DAs and their clients work together to implement the E-Verify process. We anticipate that the interview will last approximately 75 to 90 minutes.

Your participation, which is voluntary, is designed to give us insight into why employers decide to use DAs and how they choose them, what services are provided by DAs, communication between DAs and UDAs, and satisfaction with the E-Verify Program. Several states have already made E-Verify mandatory for some or all employers and Congress has discussed making E-Verify a federally mandated Program. Given this environment, we expect that more employers may choose to hire DAs. Your perspectives will help policymakers understand the Program’s impact and how it can be improved for both DAs and UDAs.

By participating in the interview, you are giving Westat permission to audio tape the discussion. The information obtained during the interviews, including the audio tapes, will be seen and heard only by Westat staff who are authorized to work on this study. The summary report will not identify you or your company in any way.

I would very much appreciate your participation in this important evaluation, entitled the Study of Employment Eligibility (SEE). If you have any concerns or questions regarding this study, please call me at (301) 251-2269. If you would like to talk to USCIS about their sponsorship of this survey, call Natasha McCann, Program Manager, at (202) 272-8122.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Sincerely,

Denise Glover, Ph.D.

Project Director, Study of Employment Eligibility