With high unemployment, NPR's E-Verify ad is a good thing

NumbersUSA: December 11, 2008 - -- by NumbersUSA


You can learn a lot about E-Verify here. Below, you will find some relevant facts:

E-Verify Overview (click here for a step by step overview of how E-Verify works)

* E-Verify is a free and simple to use Web-based system that electronically verifies the employment eligibility of newly hired employees -- visit www.dhs.gov/e-Verify.

* E-Verify works by allowing participating employers to electronically compare employee information taken from an I-9 form, (the paper based employee eligibility verification form used for all new hires) against more than 425 million records in the Social Security Administration's database and more than 60 million records in DHS immigration databases. About 96 percent of all cases queried through E-Verify are automatically verified to be employment authorized; those results are returned within seconds.(U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - USCIS)

* Currently, more than 90,000 employers in every state and U.S. territory are enrolled in e-Verify and, on average, the program increases by about 1,000 new employers each week. Thus far in FY 2009, there have been more than 450,000 verification queries run through the system. More than 6.6 million queries were registered during FY 2008. (Department of Homeland Security - DHS)

* Current law prohibits the use of E-Verify for anyone EXCEPT new hires. (USCIS)

E-Verify Statistics (USCIS):

* Employees confirmed as work authorized instantly or within 24 hours

* 96.1% of employees are confirmed as work authorized before any type of mismatch notice or need for action by the employee or employer

* 3.5% employees receive a final non-confirmation response because they are either not authorized to work in the United States, did not know that they had the opportunity to challenge an initial mismatch (or TNC), or choose not to follow the necessary procedures to prove work authorization after receiving an initial mismatch.

* E-verify is 99.9% accurate for native born American citizens. (2007 study done by Westat that is on the USCIS website)

E-Verify History:

* E-Verify was instituted by Congress in 1996 under another name ("Basic Pilot"). It began as a voluntary pilot project in a few states, then was expanded to all 50 states and was renamed E-Verify recently.

* Section 401 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA - Public Law 104-208) required the federal government to establish pilot programs to verify the employment eligibility of new hires.

* E-Verify is a re-branding of its predecessor, the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program, which has been in existence since 1997

* Participation in E-Verify (formerly Basic Pilot Program) is voluntary and has been available for every business in the country since late 2004

http://www.numbersusa.com/news?ID=10853

National Public Radio (NPR) is getting a lot of criticism from listeners about a 10-second E-Verify funding credit that NPR is running:

"Support for NPR comes from NPR stations, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), offering E-Verify, confirming the legal working status of new hires. At DHS dot gov slash E-Verify."

According to NPR's ombudsman, listeners and some radio station managers, "questioned NPR's judgment in running the credit about [the E-Verify] program that employers use voluntarily to check the legal status of new hires." So far, NPR has mostly heard from people who criticize E-Verify, which NumbersUSA considers the cornerstone of the attrition-through-enforcement strategy to replace illegal workers with citizens and legal immigrants.

Please contact NPR and express your appreciation for the E-Verify funding credit. As the unemployment numbers rise, it is good to get the word out to help businesses avoid hiring illegal workers so they can hire unemployed Americans.

Go to www.npr.org/contact

Select either "contact an NPR program" or "contact an NPR office or service"

Write your appreciation for E-Verify and that NPR is doing a public service by running the funding credit.

http://www.numbersusa.com/news?ID=10853