Thread: ‘Dreamer’ shutdown halts E-Verify, a key illegal immigration enforcement tool

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Saturday, January 20, 2018

One of the ironies of the immigration-fueled shutdown is that the government’s most powerful tool for weeding out illegal-immigrant workers was also shut down.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said E-Verify, the electronic system the government offers to businesses to check their employees’ work eligibility, is a casualty of the shutdown.

The shutdown was spurred by Democrats’ demands to legalize millions of illegal immigrant “Dreamers” in exchange for allowing the government to be funded for another four weeks. Efforts to strike a compromise on immigration stalled, so Democrats, joined by four Republicans, filibustered Friday to make good on their threat.

Most immigration law enforcement can keep going, with border and interior officers and agents deemed essential employees. Even at USCIS, which runs the legal side of the U.S. immigration system, most operations can continue, since the agency is mostly funded by fees it collects from immigrants and visitors.

But E-Verify is an exception, funded specifically by Congress. When money ran out Saturday, the program was suspended.

According to past guidance, businesses that use E-Verify are supposed to collect their new hires’ information on paper, and when the shutdown is over they are supposed to try to enter the information back into the electronic system.

In a further twist, President Trump and House Republicans had wanted any immigration deal on Capitol Hill to make E-Verify mandatory for all businesses nationwide.

Some Democrats complain about E-verify, saying it has some errors and saying they won’t accept any new interior enforcement until most illegal immigrants are legalized.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...migration-enf/

GRRR!!!!

Our government is so messed up. So USCIS cannot maintain E-Verify during a shutdown but it can process DACA renewals. Inept and Americans are the victims.

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Lapse in Federal Funding for Certain USCIS Operations


The current lapse in annual appropriated funding for the U.S. government does not affect USCIS’ fee-funded activities. Our offices will remain open, and all applicants should attend interviews and appointments as scheduled.
However, several USCIS programs will either expire or suspend operations, or be otherwise affected, until they receive appropriated funds or are reauthorized by Congress. These include:

• EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program. Regional centers are a public or private economic unit in the United States that promote economic growth. USCIS designates regional centers for participation in the Immigrant Investor Program.
• E-Verify. This free internet-based system allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States.
• Conrad 30 J-1 doctors. This program allows J-1 doctors to apply for a waiver of the two-year residence requirement after completing the J-1 exchange visitor program. The expiration only affects the date by which the J-1 doctor must have entered the United States; it is not a shutdown of the Conrad 30 program entirely.
• Non-minister religious workers. This special immigrant category allows non-ministers in religious vocations and occupations to immigrate or adjust status in the United States to perform religious work in a full-time, compensated position.

You can subscribe to receive updates on any changes in the status of these programs.




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Last Reviewed/Updated: 01/20/2018

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