MIAMI – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) North and South Florida District offices signed a Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM) with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Verification Division on June 9, 2015 in Orlando, FL at the Florida 8(a) Alliance’s Annual Conference 2015.
The purpose of this SAM agreement is to develop and foster mutual understanding and a working relationship between Florida’s SBA district offices and DHS to foster the secure and safe small business development and expansion in the state.
“More than 404,000 small businesses in the state of Florida have employees. These same small businesses employ over 20 percent of the state’s private workforce. Our Florida SBA district offices are using its resources and partners to help entrepreneurs and business owners start and grow their businesses, but we can’t do it alone,” said SBA South Florida District Director Francisco “Pancho” Marrero. “This partnership with our Federal teammates from the DHS will ultimately help small business owners with the most important part of their business: the employees.”
“SBA and DHS will collectively service the needs of present and future entrepreneurs in the State of Florida, under this partnership” stated the SBA North Florida District Director Wilfredo J. Gonzalez.
SBA North (Jacksonville) and South (Miami) Florida District offices and their resource partners provide capital, counseling services and contracting opportunities to entrepreneurs and small business owners to start and expand small businesses that create new jobs.
“We are delighted to form this partnership with our SBA Florida District offices to bring DHS’ E-Verify and Form I-9 resources and services to help entrepreneurs grow and expand their business,” said Chief of Outreach, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Verification Division Yvette LaGonterie . “By formalizing this partnership we can combine our resources and shared objectives to have an even greater impact with entrepreneurs looking to develop their business in Florida.”
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Verification Division educates businesses about federal employment eligibility verification requirements and resources. This includes promoting the use of the E-Verify service for employers. E-Verify is a free Web-based system managed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that compares information from an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm an employee’s employment eligibility.
E-Verify’s most impressive features are its speed and accuracy. E-Verify is the only free, fast, online service of its kind that verifies employees’ data against millions of government records and provides results within as little as three to five seconds. Nearly 600,000 employers have enrolled to use E-Verify at over 1.8 million hiring sites. More than 30,000 Florida employers are enrolled. More information can be found at www.dhs.gov/E-Verify.
Gonzalez, Marrero, and LaGonterie will sign the SAM which will remain in effect for two years.
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