E-Verify program confirming workers' legal status grows in popularity

[pampango]

Source: LA Times

"E-Verify is an effective way to attack the jobs magnet for illegal immigrants, said Roy Beck, executive director of Numbers USA, which favors stricter controls on immigration. Beck said he hoped the increase in funding would result in more employers signing up."

"But Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at think tank the Center for American Progress, said E-Verify was not "ready for prime time." "Supporters frame this as an immigration enforcement solution," she said. "It's really American workers having to ask the government for permission to work.""

"Business groups generally support E-Verify but criticize the error rate. The government reports that the program has a 96% accuracy rate . But even a small error rate could disqualify millions of workers if the program were to be expanded to the entire workforce, said Randel Johnson, vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

"Employment service AppleOne Inc., which places workers at a variety of businesses, started using E-Verify at all of its California branches in 2007. Human resources manager Linda Madigan said it shifted the burden of validating documents from the company to the government ."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-everify14-2009may14,0,7963143.story

---

According to the story, 1000 new business are signing up for E-Verify each week. 6.6 million names were checked last year. (With a 96% accuracy rate there would have been about 250,000 erroneous determinations.) It sounds like some businesses are happy to get out of the document verification business and turn that over to the government.