Open Forum

I need your help.  I teach in a GA school system. Our state legislature has voted for e-Verify, a program in place in about 25% of he country that is supposed to verify that all employees are of legal immigration status.  Now, our school system is interpreting a play/musical license as a contract entered into with a subcontractor who must therefore follow e-Verify guidelines.  Since the state of New York has not implemented e-Verify, the regulations don't apply to them.

I'm not trying to start an immigration debate.

I do need to find out if anyone else is having this issue.  From communicating with our reps at MTI, TRW, French, and such, they seem to have absolutely no idea what they are being asked to provide.  I'm drawing the conclusion that no one else in the country is going through this.

If you have any experience with this issue, please let me know.  I'd hate to stop having to produce musicals, given that the majority of the musical licensing houses are located in New York!

I have indeed run into this before, and I'm happy to jump into the immigration debate. I worked for a Parks and Rec department (arts division) in eastern North Carolina (that shall remain nameless). I believe it was a state wide decision to implement e-verify. (E-verify requires any individual/business/company to "verify" that all of their employees have legal status.)

Some small, local vendors agreed, but the e-verify forms have some pretty serious sounding legal ramifications if it turns out the individual/business/company does indeed have undocumented workers. A large national company is not going to sign that form because they can't guarantee that all of its subsidiaries or independent contractors follow those guidelines. So, no more business with Walmart, or chain hardware stores, or grocery stores. Even Hobby Lobby refused to sign.  

E-verify, in my less than humble opinion, is a fake solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Kind of like North Carolina's HB2 bill. It's a knee jerk reaction that causes more issues than it solves. 

What ended up happening was a quick and quiet back-peddling. I'm pretty sure they worked in some back doors and exceptions for important vendors. You may have to fax forms to MTI and the like, and they may or may not sign. But go talk to someone in HR. I guarantee you the theater is not the only one facing this issue. Good luck.

I need your help.  I teach in a GA school system. Our state legislature has voted for e-Verify, a program in place in about 25% of he country that is supposed to verify that all employees are of legal immigration status.  Now, our school system is interpreting a play/musical license as a contract entered into with a subcontractor who must therefore follow e-Verify guidelines.  Since the state of New York has not implemented e-Verify, the regulations don't apply to them.

I'm not trying to start an immigration debate.

I do need to find out if anyone else is having this issue.  From communicating with our reps at MTI, TRW, French, and such, they seem to have absolutely no idea what they are being asked to provide.  I'm drawing the conclusion that no one else in the country is going through this.

If you have any experience with this issue, please let me know.  I'd hate to stop having to produce musicals, given that the majority of the musical licensing houses are located in New York!

Hey Bob,

I am not sure if this will help, but the E-Verify law should not apply to your situation. Most state laws us e-verify for contracts that include "physical performance of services."  This is usually interpreted to mean contracted services where someone will physically be in your state, city, locality, etc. working. You school board/school is contracting with MTI for a product and performance rights, not an employee. No one from MTI, SF, etc. will actually be working in Georgia. 

I'd double check with the school board attorney, or whoever made this decision to make sure that they understand that the contract does not include any "physical performance of services" on site.

All of our contracts have to be approved offsite by someone at the school district or county level. There have been times when I have had to explain to them what the contract is for because they are only looking at a handful of these a year, and because there is a fair amount of turnover as attorneys move to other offices, etc.

Good Luck. I would love to know how this situation resolves itself because Virginia is an E-Verify state too.

I need your help.  I teach in a GA school system. Our state legislature has voted for e-Verify, a program in place in about 25% of he country that is supposed to verify that all employees are of legal immigration status.  Now, our school system is interpreting a play/musical license as a contract entered into with a subcontractor who must therefore follow e-Verify guidelines.  Since the state of New York has not implemented e-Verify, the regulations don't apply to them.

I'm not trying to start an immigration debate.

I do need to find out if anyone else is having this issue.  From communicating with our reps at MTI, TRW, French, and such, they seem to have absolutely no idea what they are being asked to provide.  I'm drawing the conclusion that no one else in the country is going through this.

If you have any experience with this issue, please let me know.  I'd hate to stop having to produce musicals, given that the majority of the musical licensing houses are located in New York!

I need your help.  I teach in a GA school system. Our state legislature has voted for e-Verify, a program in place in about 25% of he country that is supposed to verify that all employees are of legal immigration status.  Now, our school system is interpreting a play/musical license as a contract entered into with a subcontractor who must therefore follow e-Verify guidelines.  Since the state of New York has not implemented e-Verify, the regulations don't apply to them.

I'm not trying to start an immigration debate.

I do need to find out if anyone else is having this issue.  From communicating with our reps at MTI, TRW, French, and such, they seem to have absolutely no idea what they are being asked to provide.  I'm drawing the conclusion that no one else in the country is going through this.

If you have any experience with this issue, please let me know.  I'd hate to stop having to produce musicals, given that the majority of the musical licensing houses are located in New York!