Extension of E-Verify wins Senate passage
by Erin Kelly - Mar. 11, 2009 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to extend the E-Verify program through Sept. 30 as part of its approval of a massive $410 billion federal-spending bill.

However, senators rejected an amendment by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to re-authorize the program for five years. The vote was 50-47 to kill the amendment.

Sessions said he would continue his efforts to make the program permanent and to force federal contractors to use it.


E-Verify allows employers to enter employees or job applicants' Social Security numbers electronically into a free federal database to check whether they are citizens or legal residents with permission to work. The goal is to make it tougher for illegal immigrants to use fake documents to get jobs.

The program is voluntary in most parts of the country, but 15 states, including Arizona, require employers to use it. Nearly 30,000 employers at about 49,000 work sites in Arizona have signed up for E-Verify, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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