STATE LAUNCHES ALIEN VERIFICATION INITIATIVE

BOISE – Governor Jim Risch signed an Executive Order today directing state agencies to prevent illegal aliens from joining the state workforce. The order requires agencies to use a federal program called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) managed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security.

“While the illegal immigration problem will ultimately be resolved at the federal level, the state can partner with them and do what it can to ensure that only those who have entered our country legally can be a state employee or receive state benefits,” said Risch.

The state will utilize the SAVE program to determine eligibility status in five different areas.

• State Employment Verification – verifies employment eligibility for new state employees by checking employment documents against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security databases.

• State Vendor Employment Verification – requires companies that provide services to the state to verify employment eligibility of their employees;

• Health and Welfare Benefit Verification – the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare currently utilizes the SAVE program for verification. The department will review all procedures to ensure illegal aliens do not receive welfare benefits that they are not entitled to receive;

• Unemployment Insurance Verification – the Department of Commerce and Labor will expand its efforts to verify credentials provided for unemployment insurance are valid;

• Public Education – the state will educate local government and businesses about the employment verification program. Participation in the program is voluntary and free to participating employers and is available on the Internet using a Web-based Access method.

“It is important that the state set an example in hiring only legal workers in Idaho. We will be notifying businesses that they can utilize this verification program at no cost. A web site will also be set up that can guide local governments and businesses in using the program,” Risch said.

A link to the SAVE web site can be found on the state’s web page at http://gov.idaho.gov or through a direct link at http://gov.idaho.gov/save/alien_verification.html.

The SAVE program is an outgrowth of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (P.L. 99-603) passed by Congress in 1986. The Act required the establishment of a system to verify the immigration status of non-citizen applicants for certain types of federally funded benefits.

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