Brown: American Jobs for American Citizens

Email|Link|Comments (5)
Posted May 27, 2009 10:45 AM

By State Senator Scott Brown

Now that Congress has approved the massive and controversial $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, it is crucial that resources be available to make certain that this initiative meets its intended goals. The bill aims to employ out of work Americans through various infrastructure projects such as bridge, road, and public building repairs in each State. To ensure that these jobs are going to properly documented American citizens, there must be a system in place to properly verify the legal status of these workers. Such a system already exists and should be implemented for all projects under the Stimulus Package.

The E-Verify program was established by Congress in 1996, and is headed by a joint partnership of the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. This free of charge Federal program enables employers to verify the legal status and proper documentation from the information that employees have provided.

Companies that do decide to take part in the program simply enter all new employees Social Security numbers and other pertinent information into the E-Verify system. Once this is entered, the program verifies that the individual and prospective new hire matches the identification that they provided. If there is an instance when an individual comes up as “unconfirmedâ€