California employers embrace E-Verify

http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_19223845

Illegal immigrants will have a harder time securing a job -- some jobs, at least -- as more Bay Area employers screen new hires through an immigration records check.

From corporate giants Apple (AAPL) and Chevron to the organic-friendly grocer Berkeley Bowl and the nonprofit Kaiser Permanente health care organization, more than 26,000 employers in the state have signed up for the federal E-Verify program that checks the immigration status of employees.

As a growing number of states require public and private employers to use E-Verify, California has gone out of its way to make it voluntary, passing a law this month that bans local governments from forcing firms to use electronic verification.

Still, the number of California job sites using E-Verify to scrutinize their workers -- usually on the first few days on the job -- increased by 37 percent to more than 90,000 from a year ago, according to government records. The state has more job sites using the electronic verification system than any other.