Thread: E-Verify Misses Half of Illegal Workers, Report Finds

Updated February 25, 2010

E-Verify Misses Half of Illegal Workers, Report Finds

WASHINGTON - The system Congress and the Obama administration want employers to use to help curb illegal immigration is failing to catch more than half the number of unauthorized workers it checks, a research company has found.

The online tool E-Verify, now used voluntarily by employers, wrongly clears illegal workers about 54 percent of the time, according to Westat, a research company that evaluated the system for the Homeland Security Department. E-Verify missed so many illegal workers mainly because it can't detect identity fraud, Westat said.

"Clearly it means it's not doing it's No. 1 job well enough," said Mark Rosenblum, a researcher at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, Washington think tank.

E-Verify allows employers to run a worker's information against Homeland Security and Social Security databases to check whether they are permitted to work in the U.S. The Obama administration has made cracking down on employers who hire people here illegally a central part of its immigration enforcement policy, and there are expectations that some Republicans in Congress will try in coming weeks to make E-Verify mandatory.

E-Verify correctly identified legal workers 93 percent of the time, Westat said. However, previous studies have not quantified how many immigrants were fooling the E-Verify system. Much of the criticism of E-Verify has focused on whether U.S. citizens and legal immigrants with permission to work were falsely flagged as illegal workers.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who is writing the Democrats' immigration bill and has fought expanding E-Verify because of its flaws, said Wednesday that the fact that E-Verify was inaccurate so often shows that it is not an adequate tool.

"This is a wake-up call to anyone who thinks E-verify is an effective remedy to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants," Schumer said.

A so-called worker verification process like E-Verify is considered essential to any immigration overhaul proposal that has any chance of approval in Congress.

Westat's report, completed in December 2009 using data from the previous year, was quietly posted on Homeland Security's Web site Jan. 28 along with a summary that pointed out E-Verify is accurate "almost half of the time."

"While not perfect, it is important to note that E-Verify is much more effective" than the I-9 paper forms used by most employers, the summary said.

Rosenblum, who has studied E-Verify, said Westat's evaluation shows it doesn't make sense to substantially expand and invest in E-Verify without fixing the identity theft problem.

Bill Wright, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the agency, part of the Homeland Security Department, has created an anti-immigrant identity fraud unit in Buffalo, New York, to address the issue.

The agency is developing a way for people to screen themselves through E-Verify so they can show potential employers they can legally work.

About 184,000 of the nation's 7 million to 8 million employers are using E-Verify, the Homeland Security Department says on its Web site.

Congress gave DHS about $100 million to spend on E-Verify in its 2010 budget.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02 ... ort-finds/

There is a much more common sense method to catch illegal workers, mandate that SS report all numbers that are suspicious and report to law enforcement.

Examples: One "person" working 3-50 jobs, at the same time.

Infants working.

Numbers with multiple addresses.

Go to the places of employment of all the "workers" and arrest them. Prosecute for fraud, jail and if illegal alien, deport after sentence served.

Originally Posted by miguelina

There is a much more common sense method to catch illegal workers, mandate that SS report all numbers that are suspicious and report to law enforcement.

Examples: One "person" working 3-50 jobs, at the same time.

Infants working.

Numbers with multiple addresses.

Go to the places of employment of all the "workers" and arrest them. Prosecute for fraud, jail and if illegal alien, deport after sentence served.

Ditto! Unfortunately, E-Verify cannot detect when someone has stolen a legitimate SS number. I find it ironic that Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York would use this as a reason to disregard E-Verify entirely.

Make E-Verify mandatory and then prosecute illegal invaders who present stolen social security numbers , as there is no way they could then argue they didn't know the social security number was real or belonged to someone else!

I understand many illegal invaders will use the social security number of their anchor spawn to steal work in this country. How in the world can that happen!! Maybe Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York can explain that !

Originally Posted by miguelina

There is a much more common sense method to catch illegal workers, mandate that SS report all numbers that are suspicious and report to law enforcement.

Examples: One "person" working 3-50 jobs, at the same time.

Infants working.

Numbers with multiple addresses.

Go to the places of employment of all the "workers" and arrest them. Prosecute for fraud, jail and if illegal alien, deport after sentence served.

Especially if the 3-50 jobs are in DIFFERENT STATES. I would say that even two jobs should be checked out if they are not in the same state...or even if they are not in the same area. Or jobs of completely different skill sets.

Originally Posted by miguelina

There is a much more common sense method to catch illegal workers, mandate that SS report all numbers that are suspicious and report to law enforcement.

Examples: One "person" working 3-50 jobs, at the same time.

Infants working.

Numbers with multiple addresses.

Go to the places of employment of all the "workers" and arrest them. Prosecute for fraud, jail and if illegal alien, deport after sentence served.

At our local hospital, the same SSN has been used 45 times for different people.

What upsets me is that social security won't notify an individual if their number is being used by someone else. Our credit and medical records could be severely impacted by their failure.

On the positive side, at least 46% of illegals ARE caught. Now let's work on improving detection and deportation.

workers legally undocumented to work in the U.S. applying to do so and identity fraud are two separate matters and need to be treated and enforced as such. The OBL will use any excuse to get rid of programs which have proven to be both 1) relatively inexpensive and 2) effective, such as E-Verify and 287(g). We must keep telling our lawmakers that U.S. citizens want federal programs such as these to be continued and to be expanded!

Related:
The Truth About the Westat Report on E-Verify (02/25/10)
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1021630.html#1021630