Verifying Workers' Legal Status
Illegal immigration is a landmine of a conversation and typically, the conversation will step on the explosive pin that's is otherwise known as employment.
A group of lawmakers from both sides of the isle are coming together to push for a new federal system to verify who is legally allowed to work in the U.S.
The proposed system, led by Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, promises to do a better job of preventing illegal immigrants from getting jobs than the current online system, known as E-Verify. Recent reports have shed light on flaws in the existing system.
The legislation was introduced two years ago by Reps. Giffords and Sam Johnson, a Texas Republican. The proposed system is gaining attention now following the publication of the government-commissioned report, which estimated that more than half of the illegal immigrants run through the E-Verify system are wrongly being deemed authorized to work because they use stolen identities.
Known as the New Employee Verification Act, or NEVA, the proposal would require employers to run new hires through more federal databases and encourage background checks. The plan is supported by 10 U.S. lawmakers - three Democrats and seven Republicans and also has the backing of numerous business groups.
But some analysts question whether the system proposed by Giffords would actually be more reliable than E-Verify. The system also raises privacy concerns because it calls for employers to conduct background checks and collect biometric information on new employees that could be deemed too intrusive.
The complaints about E-Verify were outlined in a report by Westat, a research firm hired by the Department of Homeland Security to evaluate the system. In the report, it was indicated that E-Verify does an good job of verifying U.S. citizens and legal workers. The system runs names, birth dates and Social Security numbers against the Social Security Administration's database and Homeland Security's immigration database.
In 93 percent of the cases checked were legal workers or U.S. citizens who were accurately identified on the first try.
The Westat report was issued last week and found that E-Verify does falsely reject some U.S. citizens and legal workers but only 0.7 percent of the time.
E-Verify, however, does a poor job of preventing illegal immigrants using stolen identities from getting jobs, the report found. Westat estimated that 54 percent of the illegal immigrants run through E-Verify are wrongly deemed authorized to work, or about 3.3 percent of the total, because of identity theft.
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