Cobb County to Volunteer for Federal Immigration Audit Program

May 17th, 2012

Cobb County is about to become the first local government in Georgia to join a voluntary federal immigration program targeting employees who are in the country illegally.

Last year the state passed one of the strictest immigration laws in the country. Georgia businesses with 500 or more employees are now required to use the federal E-Verify system. But unauthorized workers have been known to slip through with fake identification and social security numbers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s fairly new IMAGE program sets out to reduce those numbers by allowing federal agents to audit employee lists and verify citizenship.

Cobb commissioner Bob Ott has lobbied his fellow commissioners to adopt the IMAGE standards for the past year.

“This is about jobs. We want to make sure that the jobs that Cobb has or the people that Cobb does business with go to the people that are entitled to have them and need them.”

If approved, Ott says he’ll push for a separate requirement for county vendors and subcontractors.

“If it’s just the county that’s image certified, we really haven’t gotten anywhere so I think the next logical step would be having the companies that the county does business with be IMAGE-certified also.”

The Board of Commissioners is expected to sign off on the new county hiring standards at their next meeting on Tuesday.