Gov. Mark Dayton has vetoed a bill that would have required state government to verify the immigration status of newly hired employees.
The legislation would have required the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government to use the federal E-Verify program for all new hires; and would have required the Commissioner of Management and Budget to audit government to ensure those background checks were taking place.
In his veto letter to the Legislature Tuesday, the governor said state government already checks to ensure its new hires are employment eligible. Moreover, he said the government's own review of E-Verify revealed the system was vulnerable to fraud with a high percentage of errors.
"Requiring use of the E-Verify system would result in an inefficient and duplicative process, which could create appearances of unfair treatment and, thereby, cause an increase in employment litigation," Dayton wrote. "I also believe that requiring the use of E-Verify in the State's hiring process would decrease our ability to provide fair and legal scrutiny of employability for applicants, as we do now."
Read the full veto letter below:
