Proposed immigration checks for San Bernardino County restaurants

United States, 24th April: As part of the proposed immigration checks, San Bernardino restaurants will be under obligation to tell customers about any immigrant checks on their workers.

Proposal to identify restaurants using E-Verify--This is a proposal by Neil Derry, Supervisor of San Bernardino County, for prohibiting employers from recruiting undocumented immigrants in restaurants.

Derry proposes using health grades issued by San Bernardino County for determining the use of E-Verify screening process by restaurants. E-Verify is a free database online that helps businesses to verify their employees’ eligibility for working in the US.

Color-coded placards for indicating E-Verify use—All restaurants in San Bernardino County will be required to use color-coded placards to inform their customers whether they are using E-Verify for determining employees’ immigration status. An A, B or C grade is meant to indicate the grading received by the restaurant in terms of health inspection.

In addition to these grades, there will be a green background for restaurants using E-Verify system for employees’ verification. A red background will indicate those not using E-Verify, Supervisor Derry clarified as part of his proposal that goes before the supervisors’ board today.

The ABC grading system has been in practice since the year 2004.

Previous proposals by Derry for using E-Verify--Derry is known for coming up with a variety of proposals from time to time to make it mandatory for businesses to make use of E-Verify system.

In a similar move, he wanted to have a compulsory E-Verify screening of those applying for county food handler cards last fall. In addition, he also recommended all food establishments to conduct immigration checks on workers for getting business licenses.

However, the proposal failed to materialize as Assembly Bill 1236 prohibited mandatory use of E-Verify by private employers.

Employing undocumented immigrants- a threat to public health-Derry--It may be worth mentioned here that in all such proposals, Derry seems to have a common motive, i.e., to prevent undocumented immigrants from taking food service jobs that ought to go to jobless legal workers.

However, this time, things seem to be little different.

This time, Derry is of the view that public health could be at a significant risk if care was not taken to identity immigration status of prospective employees’ by the restaurants.

That’s because majority of undocumented immigrants have not fulfilled health requirements including tests and vaccinations and hence they are at a higher risk of carrying communicable diseases, Derry argued.