Smith checks employees' immigration status

Fred Smith checks the immigration status of his employees online.

Two businesses run by the Republican gubernatorial candidate, the Fred Smith Co. and the C.C. Mangum Co., participate in E-Verify.

The voluntary program allows companies to check federal databases to see whether employees can legally work in the United States. Smith's businesses signed up in 2005 in part because of his impending gubernatorial bid.

"When you put yourself in the public square, when you put yourself under the microscope, we have to go to extra steps to ensure we're complying with the law," Smith told Dome. "It's our effort to comply with the law. It's just that simple."

A Republican-sponsored bill in 2007 would have required employers who receive incentives and public contracts in North Carolina to use E-Verify. It never made it out of committee.

More after the jump.

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Businesses that use E-Verify can enter the information found on those documents online to find if an employee can legally work in the U.S. The program searches 425 million records in the Social Security Administration and 60 million records in the Department of Homeland Security.

If the employee can legally work in the U.S., a confirmation is found online in a matter of seconds. If the employee is not found, then a nonconfirmation is sent to the employer, asking the employee to contact the Social Security Administration.

The vast majority of people are usually found eligible, said Shawn Saucier, a spokesman for U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"It's designed to give the employee the benefit of the doubt at every step," he said.

E-verify will expire in November 2008 if Congress does not act on it.