LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Employer is responsible

Dear Editor,

I would like to respond to the letter to the editor in the Oct. 12 edition of The Times titled, “Whose Job Is It?” The writer posed the question, “Did any of our local officials, either the police or the city government (mayor’s office) take the time to ask if every one of the workers had been E-Verified as to the legality of all the workers?” The writer was referencing roofers at Fred’s and the funeral home. He then presents an assumption that the city leaders would declare that it isn’t their job, so whose job is it to check the legal status of these workers?

Working in HR (Human Resources) allows me the knowledge to offer the following information regarding E-verify:

In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which required the Social Security Administration (SSA) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), to initiate an employment verification pilot program. Under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), USCIS operates the E-verify program. E-verify implements the legal requirement in IIRIRA by allowing any U.S. employers to verify the employment eligibility of its newly hired employees.

E-Verify is a voluntaryprogram for most employers, but mandatory for some, such as employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation E-verify clause and employers in certain states.

The use of E-Verify requires the collection of personally identifiable information. It is essential to protect the privacy of individuals that submit information to be processed through E-Verify.

This brief overview of E-Verify should reflect the answer to the writer’s question “Whose job is it?” The responsibility for verification of an individual’s legal eligibility to work in the U.S.

belongs to his/her employer.

It also indicates that his/her personal information is to be protected.

Let’s go one step forward with an overview of the role of the EEOC. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, participated in an employment discrimination investigation orlawsuit.

KAREN M. HALL Pea Ridge, Ark.

Only God knows

God must be shaking his head and wondering why.

Where did I screw up?

We now have the Baptists saying the Mormons are not Christians.

We have the Muslims shooting the Christians in Egypt.

We have the Jews constantly fighting the Palestinians.

We have a world history of centuries of religious wars.

Some of them the most bloody and deadly of all wars. When does it all stop and humans learn to live with each other regardless of their religion? For the most part, we all believe in a God of some sort.

Different names for different religions. So what?

I purposely stay away from all organized religions simply because I don’t believe any of them have it totally right.

Only God knows.

PETE RATHMELL Garfield, Ark.

“GOP Says No” again

In response to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Sept. 28, 2011, headline “GOP says no to insurance pool by state,” it is obvious the Republican-Tea Party is playing politics with our state health care exchangeand cannot be trusted. They are advocating the federal government having control of setting up health care exchanges in our state. This comes on the heels of Gov. Jan Brewer (R. AZ) being invited to a state GOP event shortly after she applied for a grant to allow Arizona to be in charge of their own health exchange.

Arkansas Republicans have it wrong. We want our state government in control and not the Washington bureaucrats.

It is obvious that Republican-Tea Party obstructionism has come to Arkansas. Saying “NO” is not new behavior for the Republicans unless it is to give more tax cuts to the rich and corporations or take away our Medicare (The Ryan Act), cut our social security, destroy our environment, or curb our civil rights.

Perhaps it is time for the Republicans to move past their “I got mine, you get yours” Pharisaical attitudes and start caring about all Americans, rather than just Wall Street, corporations and the rich.

We have 50 million Americans without health insurance.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (improperly named Obamacare) will allow us to go to state exchanges to buy affordable health insurance. This is a good thing for Arkansas, despite Republican propaganda. Let us come together and reason.

THURMAN METCALF Rogers, Ark.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 10/18/2011