Demand for citizenship proof alarms state employees

Mandate is tied to federal funding, health department says, and affects 4,000 workers.

- By Khari JOHNSON

UNIONS are resisting the directive from the state Department of Public Health.

(RAHUL LAL CalMatters)

About 4,000 California Department of Public Health employees have been told they must use a federal verification system to prove they're U.S. citizens.

Leaders of the agency said in a memo obtained by CalMatters that the verification is necessary to receive federal funding, but employees and unions are resisting the directive.

In the memo, a human resources deputy director asked employees to comply with a series of deadlines. A separate document distributed by the department said that failing to complete the verification may result in the state losing a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the national death index, which collects death certificate data from authorities nationwide.

The department also is making the move to address incomplete employment eligibility records identified in a recent audit, according to the Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents roughly 3,000 department employees.

As at other U.S. employers, all new California health department employees complete a federal I-9 form to prove their citizenship.

The department is now asking them to enroll in E-Verify, a program administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration. That system compares information provided by an employee on the I-9 to records in federal databases, including at Social Security and the Department of Homeland Security. In some cases, it also prompts employers to compare each applicant's identification document photo with the one they provided during the E-Verify process.

The memo said employees will specifically use E-Verify+, which combines filling out an I-9 with verification. Employees hired before November can opt out of using that specific version of E-Verify.