The president of two Chicago-area staffing companies that supplied temporary workers to suburban warehouses has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for hiring undocumented workers to form his labor pool. The sentence resulted from a worksite enforcement investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Clinton Roy Perkins, 66, was sentenced Feb. 16 to 18 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for knowingly hiring undocumented workers at the staffing companies. He pleaded guilty in September 2010. On Feb. 25, U.S. District Judge Joan B. Gottschall also ordered the forfeiture of $465,178 in proceeds obtained as a result of the criminal activity.

Perkins, of Wayne, Ill., was the president of Anna II Inc., and Can Do It Inc., staffing companies located at 801 Golf Lane in Bensenville, Ill. Anna II/Can Do It provided both skilled and unskilled labor to clients operating warehouses in various suburbs. The workers performed janitorial services, loaded and unloaded freight packages and merchandise, and installed and removed structures inside warehouses.

In his plea agreement, Perkins admitted to knowingly hiring more than 10  undocumented foreign nationals from Mexico as temporary workers between October 2006 and October 2007. The unauthorized workers hired by Perkins were not required to provide documents establishing their immigration status or lawful right to work in the United States.

Perkins and his son-in-law, Chrispher Reindl, paid the unauthorized workers' wages in cash and failed to deduct payroll taxes or other withholdings. Perkins and Reindl directed low-level supervisory employees to transport the workers back and forth between locations near their residences in Chicago and work sites in the suburbs. Both also provided bogus six-digit numbers - purporting to be the last six digits of the aliens' Social Security numbers - to a company, knowing that their workers were in the country illegally and did not possess valid Social Security numbers.

Reindl pleaded guilty in November to hiring undocumented workers and is scheduled for sentencing in March.

"We will hold employers accountable for their actions," said Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Chicago. "Mr. Perkins knowingly hired an illegal workforce and circumvented our nation's immigration laws for financial gain. The goal of our enforcement efforts is two-fold - reduce the demand for illegal employment and protect job opportunities for the nation's lawful workforce."

ICE was assisted in the investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General in Chicago. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher R. McFadden and Daniel May, Northern District of Illinois, prosecuted the case.

On March 21, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) launched a new "Self Check" feature in the E-Verify system to allow individuals to check their own employment eligibility records for accuracy. Self Check is available on a voluntary basis to persons who want to confirm the accuracy of the government's data on their authorization to work in the United States. The new feature allows an individual to enter the same personal information that an employer would use to run an employee through E-Verify. Users may check their own personal data only, not the data of another person.
 

Self Check is now available in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Virginia and Washington, D.C. only. During the initial phase, users may log into the system only if their IP address originates in one of these states. Self Check will eventually be made available across the United States.

Using Self Check

The E-Verify Self Check process consists of four steps:

1) users enter identifying information online (such as name, date of birth, and address)
 

2) users confirm their identity by answering demographic and/or financial questions generated by a third-party identity assurance service
 

3) users enter work eligibility information, such as a social security number and, depending on citizenship status, an alien registration number
 

4) E-Verify Self Check checks users' information against relevant SSA and DHS databases and returns information on users' employment eligibility status.

Self Check either confirms employment eligibility or indicates a "possible mismatch," which prompts the person to follow up with USCIS or the Social Security Administration (SSA) to correct any discrepancies. Because the Self Check feature is intended as a service to individuals and usage is voluntary, the person receiving a possible mismatch is not required to take corrective action, although such action is recommended because of the employment implications of a database error.
 

Implications of Self Check for Employers
 

If it works as expected, Self Check should reduce  some of the administrative burdens that fall on employers who receive an E-Verify non-confirmation of an employee's work eligibility, since it should allow employees to identify and resolve verification problems before they start a new job.
 

Employers cannot require job applicants to use Self Check as a condition of employment. While U.S. law does not prohibit employers from informing prospective employees of the Self Check option, employers should exercise extreme caution in providing such information because it could be misunderstood as a request or even a requirement. USCIS and Department of Justice's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Employment Discrimination (OSC) have developed Self Check guidelines for employers and employees.