USCIS

U.S.News and World Report

Study: Arizona Employment Restrictions Deter Unauthorized Immigrants

June 6, 2018

A new study has found that an Arizona law requiring employers to confirm employees’ legal authorization to work within the U.S. decreased emigration from and increased return migration to Mexican regions with strong ties to Arizona.

The study, published in the journal Demography, examined the international migration response to the Legal Arizona Workers Act. The law requires Arizona employers to submit an electronic request to confirm each candidate’s legal authorization to work in the U.S., using the E-Verify system to confirm that prospective workers are in the country legally. The January 2008 law thus reduced the “attractiveness of Arizona as a destination for potential migrants without legal status,” according to the study.

“Mexican immigrants respond to changing job prospects both by moving within the U.S. and by moving internationally,” said Brian Kovak, co-author of the study and associate professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. “The paper in question focuses on moving internationally.”

The E-Verify system compares Social Security numbers and names of new workers against a centralized database from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, according to the research.

In 14 states – Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia – E-Verify requirements only apply to certain public-sector agencies or contractors. Meanwhile, in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah, universal mandates require all, or nearly all, employers to use the system to screen new hires, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas…More here.