Pierce County Exec. denies decision to remove E-Verify

After the Pierce County Council voted to remove E-Verify as a requirement for hiring contractors, the decision was vetoed by County Executive Bruce Dammeier, prompting a debate within the community on whether the program discriminates against legal immigrants or people of color.

E-Verify is a free online program that verifies an employee’s ability to work legally in the United States.

Dammeier stated he had never heard any complaints or concerns about the efficiency or effectiveness of E-Verify in the ten-plus years the county has used it before he received a letter last summer from Washington Perinatal.

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“They were concerned that, in their work, requiring E-Verify would cause trauma or concerns for their employees,” Dammeier said on the Dori Monson Show. “They wanted to go back to just the paper I-9, but the paper I-9 has been riddled with challenges. E-Verify is one of the few federal programs that has been very effective and is very highly rated, used by almost a million employers and organizations throughout the nation.”

Those in favor of eliminating the program said they were concerned human errors — typos, name changes, multiple surnames — led to people becoming ineligible to work. They also stated this disproportionately impacted legal immigrants, naturalized citizens, and married women.

E-Verify relies on information from Form I-9 primarily to cross-reference with records from the Social Security Administration and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to its website.

“You probably would have to talk to them to see what their motivations were behind this,” Dammeier said. “I know we have a free online efficient system that is working well for ten years for Pierce County employees and our contractors. I have not seen any reason to change it at this point.”

Ryan Mello, Pierce County Councilmember representing District 4, went to Facebook to air out his grievances against Dammeier’s swift decision to veto their vote.

“One of the toughest parts is he did this without even taking a meeting with the advocates and organizations making the case for the deep harm errors and wastefulness the E-Verify system causes,” Mello wrote on Facebook. “We say we are undoing institutionalized racism, let’s just say some folks are all talk and no action.”

“I would vehemently disagree with his assertion that the E-Verify system is racist and instituting trauma on people. If that were true, then we have a very significant issue. I don’t think a million employers would be using it,” Dammeier said in response to Mello’s post. “I also found it somewhat ironic that the only Hispanic member of our Pierce County Council voted against the resolution. Councilmember Paul Herrera, a former Army veteran and former law enforcement, has told me that he could bring many folks he knows from our [local] Hispanic community who were absolutely opposed to this, because they want to support people who are legally authorized to work here.”

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