False Claims of Participation
While it is true there is nothing to prevent an employer from falsely claiming he or she uses E-Verify, two considerations make doing so unattractive.
- An employer who doesn't use E-Verify runs the risk of employing, inadvertently or otherwise, illegal aliens—persons unauthorized to work in the United States. Employing an illegal alien knowingly is a crime. If an employer who falsely claims to use the E-Verify system is caught employing an illegal alien, the employer's defense that the illegal employment was unknowing is substantially harder to make.
- Some employers who hire illegal aliens sometimes avoid the penalties in law for doing so by leaving, in case of prosecution, a mid-level human resources manager holding the bag. Falsely claiming as a matter of company policy that the company uses E-Verify makes upper management more clearly culpable.
