by Frank James

We reported back in September about a lawsuit the Homeland Security Department filed against Illinois to stop the state from interfering with the use by employers in Illinois of the E-Verify system to check workers' legal status to work in the U.S.

Homeland Security and the state have reached an agreement that will permit employers in Illinois to use the Internet-linked federal database to check to see if their workers are legally in the U.S. and allowed by law to work.

Here's a press release from the federal agency.

Statement by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on the E-VERIFY LAWSUIT WITH ILLINOIS

In September, we filed a lawsuit in federal court to declare invalid an Illinois statute that effectively forbids Illinois employers from enrolling in the department’s E-Verify system. The statute was to become effective on January 1, 2008, but in papers filed with the court yesterday, the state agreed not to enforce it until the department’s lawsuit against the state is resolved. It also disclosed that the Illinois legislature is considering a bill to address the legal issues raised in the suit.

The department will communicate with each of the Illinois employers enrolled in E-Verify to let them know that they may continue using E-Verify without fear of a state enforcement action on January 1. The state’s decision also allows employers planning to enroll in E-Verify to do so without the threat of state enforcement against them. Illinois employers will now have the ability to verify the legality of their workforce without interruption or fear of reprisal by the state.

In a motion filed with DHS, the state requested a sixty day stay of the lawsuit so that the Illinois legislature would have an opportunity to consider proposed changes in the Illinois statute. I remain hopeful that Illinois will amend its law so that Illinois employers can continue to utilize this valuable tool without the need for further litigation.

E-Verify is an online system that allows employers to check whether a worker’s name and Social Security number are valid and the individual is authorized to work in our country. It gets consistently good reviews from the employers who use it, and we continue to work to improve the system’s protections against fraud. We’ve upgraded E-Verify with a photo tool that allows employers to compare the photo on a person’s driver’s license or ID card against federal databases, thus making sure the documents are not fraudulent or stolen. This program is free of charge and has been used by more than 30,000 employers enrolled nationwide, and over 900 employers in Illinois alone. Last year, over 3 million new employees were checked nationwide using this system. Congress has repeatedly acknowledged that rampant document and identity fraud has significantly undermined the existing system for stopping illegal workers from getting jobs, and E-Verify is the best available way for employers to ensure their workforce is legally authorized to work.

So the program can go forward in Illinois until the lawsuit is disposed of, which may take years. And as the Homeland Security release says, Illinois's legislature may pass a new law that would effectively remove the barrier the state had placed in the way of employers wanting to check their employees' legal status.

Illinois legislators who supported the state's move to block employers' use of E-Verify had argued, as did immigration advocates, that the database wasn't completely accurate. They said there would be too many instances of false postives, workers with the legal right to work in the U.S., either through U.S. citizenship or because they had the proper visas, being falsely reported as illegal.

But there is growing pressure, even in states with large immigrant populations, for tougher enforcement of existing immigration laws.

Illinois's move can be interpreted as an acknowledgement of how the intense desire for enforcement is not only coloring national politics, but changing the dynamics of the debate in statehouses as well.

It's a lesson New York's Gov. Eliot Spitzer recently learned the hard way after he was forced, following a fierce backlash, to renounce his plan to give illegal immigrants an official state drivers license. That sent a message to lawmakers all over the country, including Illinois.