E-Verify Detractors Need a New Spiel
The Denver [CO] City Council has voted to require public construction contractors and sub-contractors to enroll in E-Verify. One of the Councilmen, Doug Linkhart, reportedly parroted a couple of the standard arguments against the program:
“The system can falsely report a legal worker as being ineligible.”
This claim isn’t necessarily true, but even if it is, it doesn’t prevent a legal worker from keeping his job. E-Verify can only be used to verify new hires; in other words, the worker already has the job. It is illegal and prohibited by the employer’s agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to use E-Verify to pre-screen employees.
As long as the identification info submitted is correct, US citizens are never reported as ineligible. Non-citizen workers can, for various reasons, incur a “Tentative Non-Confirmation” in the initial response. Proper procedure requires, however, that:
- the employer check the information submitted for accuracy and resubmit if an error is found;
- the new hire be notified in writing of the initial response;
- the new hire be given the opportunity to contest, in writing, the non-confirmation;
- the new hire be provided with instructions, provided by E-Verify and in writing, for clearing up the discrepancy;
- the employee cannot be fired, suspended, have training withheld or work hours shortened as a result of the non-confirmation;
- the new hire either contact the local SSA office in person or DHS by phone to correct any problems with the employee’s eligibility. In other words, the final determination is done by a living human being, not the system;
- the E-Verify system be updated to reflect the corrected information. Final determination of the worker’s eligibility is reported through E-Verify rather than by the employee to the employer, to eliminate miscommunication.
Critics refuse to acknowledge that the system is slanted, at every step, to protect the legal worker and that the E-Verify system has never, when used correctly, denied a legal worker a job.
“The system doesn’t match the Social Security number to the employee and can’t stop identity theft.”
While there may have been some validity to this claim in the past, it is much less an issue today, if at all. First, a US citizen is always eligible to work, regardless of what Social Security number he or she uses. For the purposes of employment eligibility, there is no reason for a US citizen to present an incorrect number.
Eligible non-citizens have a SSA number that is tied to the immigrant’s SSA and/or DHS record, which includes its own number(s) and photograph. Mismatches between the Social Security number and the alien’s immigration ID are detected. For workers who present a Resident Alien card or other work eligibility document, the photo on the card is matched to the photo on record. If there is still a question regarding identity, the new hire is instructed to follow the same basic procedure as enumerated above.
While it may be possible for an illegal alien to use the Social Security number of an eligible worker, one of the pieces of identification presented by the new hire must have a photo. Employers are required to exercise due diligence to ensure that identification documents are not obviously forged, but that has always been expected of employers and is not indicative of a flaw in the E-Verify program.
Detractors of E-Verify, such as Councilman Doug Linkhart, point to studies that show the system can falsely report a legal worker as being ineligible. And because E-Verify can check only whether a new employee’s Social Security number belongs to a legal worker rather than to the person who submitted the number, it also does nothing to deter identity theft, opponents say.
