North Carolina passes bill requiring use of E-Verify News
North Carolina passes bill requiring use of E-Verify
Photo source or description

[JURIST] The North Carolina House of Representatives [official website] on Saturday voted 67-45 to pass a bill [HB 36 text, PDF; materials] requiring all employers with 25 or more employees to check the immigration status of their hires using the E-Verify [official website] system. The bill would take full effect after a 24-month phase in period, after which around 40 percent of the state’s businesses and all its cities and counties would be required to use the E-Verify system in all future hires. Detractors of the bill argue that it lacks strong enforcement provisions [News & Observer report] and will result in many false complaints. The bill was previously passed by the state Senate, and will now go to Governor Beverly Perdue [official website] for her veto or signature.

State laws requiring the use of the E-Verify system have recently been introduced throughout the country despite controversy over the concern that the system is not accurate enough to be made mandatory upon employers. In May, the US Supreme Court [official website] upheld [JURIST report] an Arizona law which required employers to utilize the E-Verify system, finding that it was not preempted by the Immigration Reform and Control Act [text] and thus not a violation of the Supremacy Clause [text].