Thread: Employment Verification Program Called Underused

(I haven't seen this posted, but if it has, delete)

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CQ HOMELAND SECURITY – BORDER SECURITY
July 24, 2007 – 7:33 p.m.
Employment Verification Program Called Underused
By Eleanor Stables, CQ Staff

A program that verifies employees are authorized to work in the United States could be expanded without any new law — if the federal government itself used it more, according to two conservative immigration experts.

The Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS), also known as Basic Pilot, is currently voluntary and is actively used by approximately 8,500 of the nation’s 5.9 million employers to verify a new employee’s work eligibility. It would have been made mandatory under the Senate immigration overhaul bill (S 1639) that failed in the Senate last month.

Only a few government agencies use EEVS: the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services headquarters and field offices, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Federal Protective Services in Philadelphia, and the Department of Veterans Affairs Police in Montrose, N.Y., according to USCIS spokesman Bill Wright. EEVS is used for new hires, not current employees.

House and Senate members, committees and support offices also use EEVS, he added.

James Jay Carafano, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said in an interview that DHS is likely to require federal employees and contractors to use EEVS. “That’s probably going to happen. . . . I’ve been told that’s in the works and could well be coming down the pike,â€

As long as Ted Kennedy stays in the Senate, the stench will get "worse, and worse and worse."