E-Verify Program Data Collection

October 2010

Dear Employer:

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is responsible for overseeing the procedures for employers’ verification of all new hires for their eligibility to work in the United States. All employers are required to complete and retain I-9 documentation on their new hires. In addition, some employers – either voluntarily or as required by law – also utilize the Internet-based E-Verify Program, administered jointly by USCIS and the Social Security Administration.

We have asked The University of Arizona to conduct an evaluation on behalf of USCIS of the E-Verify employment verification program in {THIS STATE}. Use of E-Verify is voluntary for a majority of employers in {THIS STATE}. (Exceptions include federal contractors and certain other employer categories.) Your company may or may not be using E-Verify to confirm work eligibility for new hires but, regardless, we would appreciate your participation in this research.

The goals of this evaluation are to understand why companies in {THIS STATE} are electing to use E-Verify and whether E-Verify is working as intended to protect against discrimination, safeguard privacy, and avoid undue employer burden. Congress may use this information to help it determine whether E-Verify should be made mandatory for a larger group of employers and what changes to the current Program need to be made. Your participation in this evaluation will, therefore, be important to the future direction of employment verification in this country.

As part of this evaluation, we have authorized The University of Arizona to conduct an independent survey of 900 employers once a year for the next three years. We have told The University of Arizona to treat all responses to this survey as highly confidential, to the extent allowable by law. The University of Arizona will only provide us, and others who are not part of the University’s evaluation team, with summary results. These summaries will not permit identification of individual respondents, companies, or corporate names. We will publish the final report of survey results on the Web; this will give you an opportunity to see how the information that you and others provide is being used to improve the E-Verify Program.

I would very much appreciate your full cooperation with The University of Arizona’s request that you participate in this important evaluation, entitled the E-Verify Employer Survey. On behalf of USCIS, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation in this important research. If you have any concerns regarding this evaluation of the Program, please call Natasha McCann, Program Manager, or me at (202) 272-8122.

Sincerely,

Tiffany Lightbourn, Ph.D.

Chief, Research and Evaluation Division

Office of Policy and Strategy