What is E-Verify
E-Verify is an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to verify electronically the identity and employment eligibility of their newly hired employees, regardless of citizenship. Specifically, the SSA will verify that the name, Social Security number, and date of birth are correct, and the DHS will verify that the employee is in an employment-authorized immigration status.
Until recently, participation in E-Verify was completely voluntary....
http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=78162United States: E-Verify Rule Suspended...Again!
29 April 2009
For the third time in four months, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published a notice in the Federal Register extending the effective date of the E-Verify requirement for Federal Contractors. The mandatory E-Verify rule, originally slated to be implemented on Jan. 15, 2009, has been delayed until June 30, 2009. The effective date provides the Obama administration additional time to review the rule.
E-Verify is the federal government's method of electronically verifying that employees are authorized to work in the United States. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), enacted in 1996, provides the statutory basis for E-Verify.
As we reported in previous Labor and Employment Alerts both here and here, the federal government twice suspended the effective date of the rule back in January of 2009.
http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=78798E-Verify enhancements improve accuracy rates
(April 27, 2009)
Issue:
You are considering using the federal government’s E-Verify program to electronically verify your new hires’ eligibility to work in the United States. You’ve heard mixed opinions about the program, however, including claims that its mismatch rate is unacceptably high. What is U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) doing to enhance E-Verify’s accuracy rates?
Answer:
Use of E-Verify has grown exponentially in the past several years, with an average of 1,000 employers enrolling each week . The percentage of cases queried through E-Verify that were automatically
verified as work authorized has steadily improved: up from 83 percent in 2002, to 94.7 percent in 2007, to
96.1 percent in 2008 .
Source: "Priorities Enforcing Immigration Law," Testimony of Michael Aytes, USCIS Acting Deputy Director, April 2, 2009.
http://hr.cch.com/hhrlib/issues-answers/E-Verify-enhancements-improve-accuracy-rates.asp?date=April-27-2009-------------------------
I was surprised to find that the ACLU is opposed to electronic employment verification methods like E-Verify (at least it did in 2005).
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The American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) recommends opposition to legislative proposals to establish a nationwide, electronic, employee work-eligibility verification system that requires any worker to obtain government pre-clearance to start a new job . Building such a system will cost the nation far more – in dollars, lost privacy and increased discrimination against lawful workers – than it will achieve in controlling undocumented immigrants. And this kind of system would, for the first time in American history, give the government the power to deny any willing worker, citizen or not, the ability to obtain a job. No willing worker should be forced to obtain the Department of Homeland Security’s permission to work, especially when that system will cause millions of work-eligible American citizens and lawful residents to be wrongly delayed or prevented from working and earning a living.
Proponents of such a system promise that this system will be easy and convenient, and will make the problem of undocumented immigrants simply disappear. Congress should not buy the hype. Building a government-run employment pre-clearance system will be complex, painful, and expensive, and will raise significant privacy issues at every step :
* Such a system will necessitate the issuance of redesigned high-tech ID cards -- likely including both Social Security cards and visa cards with biometric features -- at a cost of at least $4 billion. Those would be linked to a massive government database containing sensitive, personally identifiable information about every resident in the United States, whatever their citizenship or visa status, posing a substantial threat to U.S. residents’ personal privacy and civil liberties.
* Data errors and technological snafus will cause delays or denials of work opportunities for millions of citizens, hurting incomes, business productivity, and tax revenue at all levels of government.
* All told, the system will cost the country an estimated $11.7 billion per year.
* Additionally, the billions of tax dollars will be wasted trying to build, maintain, manage and improve a national database system in the face of what government reports have found will be enormous technological and logistical difficulties.
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/workplace/22415leg20051207.html
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