With the federal government unable to deal with America’s broken immigration system, many states have taken it upon themselves to ensure that the immigration laws now on the books are followed. To that end, Governor Nathan Deal (R) signed a bill into law last year that phases in a requirement for all Georgia employers to use the federal government’s E-Verify program to confirm the citizenship and work status of newly hired employees.
E-Verify is a free, web-based program that allows clubs to access government databases to confirm an employee’s right to be in the U.S. and his ability to work here. Most importantly, use of the program provides clubs with immunity from federal prosecution if that new hire is later found out to be in the country illegally or unauthorized to hold a job.
On July 1, 2012, all private clubs with 100 or more employees must use E-Verify for newly hired full-time employees. As such, if your club has not yet enrolled in E-Verify you have a limited time left to do so.
NCA has long supported the use of the E-Verify program for clubs and urges all Georgia clubs to begin the enrollment process sooner rather than later. To enroll, simply go to www.uscis.gov and click on the E-Verify link.
Those Georgia clubs with between 11 and 99 employees have until July 1, 2013 to enroll in and use E-Verify. However, nothing prohibits such clubs from enrolling today.
According to the Georgia law, clubs that are required to use E-Verify must provide proof of its use (most likely in the form of an affidavit) before any business license will be issued or renewed. The penalty for failing to comply with the law’s requirements is the loss of the club’s business license or other state-provided licenses, such as liquor licenses.
Should you have any further questions, please contact NCA’s Vice President of Government Relations and General Counsel, Brad D. Steele, at [email protected].
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