Thread: DHS: wants more employers to use E-verify

Homeland Security Seeks Funding To Support E-Verify System Expansion

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
InformationWeek Wed Feb 6, 3:15 PM ET

The U.S. federal government expects the number of employers using its electronic verification system for new job applicants to more than double this year to 100,000 and to climb to 300,000 by 2009.
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To help support and promote that increased usage, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the system, is seeking to increase funding for E-Verify by $40 million, up to $100 million for fiscal 2009.

"We're adding more than 1,000 new employers each week," says Chris Bentley, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of Homeland Security.

E-Verify is a secure, Web-based system for employers to automatically check government databases on the employment authorization of job applications. When employers type into the system an applicant's name and other identification information, the system verifies whether the individual's Social Security number matches Social Security Administration data.

For non-U.S. citizens, the system also verifies with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services databases the employment eligibility of the individual, including whether the person has a valid work visa.

Recently, the system was also upgraded with a tool to help match individuals with their digital photos in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services documents. That photo tool will likely be expanded for use with other government databases.

Employers who use E-Verify are required to utilize the system for all new hires -- they cannot discriminate among applicants, says Bentley. To help enforce this and other requirements, and to evaluate how the system is being used, Homeland Security is looking to create an E-Verify compliance office, says Bentley.

Other funding will go toward outreach programs to support and encourage use of E-Verify, he says. Some states, including Arizona, have enacted legislation requiring employers to use E-Verify for new job applicants, he says.

A federal mandate that would've required all employers to use E-Verify died along with Congress' proposed immigration reform bill last year.

For the first five months of fiscal 2008 -- from October to February -- E-Verify was used to check the employment eligibility of 1.6 million individuals. In fiscal 2007, E-Verify was used to verify the employment authorization of 3.3 million job applicants, up from only 1.74 million in 2006, Bentley says. Although the system was first rolled out in 1996, it didn't gain much traction till 2006.

Employers in the professional services and technology industries are the top users of E-Verify, followed by administrative support companies and food services firms.

On the technology side, "the infrastructure is in place" to support the increased use, Bentley says.

There are about 2 milion employers ....300k using it isn't too bad for a start. We shold start making presentations to local Chambers of Commerce and tout the ease/accuracy and benefits of being an honest, patriotic business and employer. The logo program should be touted.

A federal mandate that would've required all employers to use E-Verify died along with Congress' proposed immigration reform bill last year.

It's absolutely outragous that E-Verify is not mandatory for all employeers. Why is it that the most effective tools this country has in fighting the illegal invaders( the fence, E-verify) had to be attached to that deplorable so called immigration reform(amnesty)bill.

The reason our government does not make E-Verify mandatory is because it actually works.