Progress Made in Improving E-Verify

The government is committed to improving E-Verify, and the first steps to making it a better system have already been put in place.

But could this system of verifying employment hurt US workers and businesses?

Flaws in Verifying Employment

E-Verify is the government’s web-based system that allows an employer to determine an employee’s eligibility to work in the US. Despite E-Verify’s increasing popularity amongst companies verifying their workers’ employment, E-Verify had several flaws that resulted in high error rates.

These errors affected both immigrants who did have US employment authorization as well as US citizens who also had the right to work.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano championed the system, noting that the government was aware of the high error rates and was already working to fix them. “We need to continue to work to improve E-Verify, and we will,” she noted in a press release several months ago.

New Initiatives for Improving E-Verify

The newly introduced initiatives for improving E-Verify include a new partnership with the Department of Justice that will streamline the adjudication process in cases of E-Verify discrimination. There is also an informational telephone hotline and online training videos to provide timely and effective customer service for anyone looking for information about E-Verify.

E-Verify will share information with the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Counsel if there are any allegations involving misuse or discrimination against current or potential employees. The Office of Special Counsel is authorized to conduct investigations of citizenship, immigration status or national origin discrimination or other similar unfair practices dealing with verifying employment.

The training videos are available in English and Spanish and can be viewed on YouTube or the Department of Homeland Security’s website. The videos are designed to help employers and employees using E-Verify to understand their rights and responsibilities when verifying employment.

The telephone hotline has automated instructions as well as representatives who speak English or Spanish. The hotline is there so that anyone can:

• Learn information about the E-Verify program and procedures
• Understand how to complete the I-9 form for employment eligibility
• Learn how the E-Verify process affects employers and employees
• Understand employee rights
• Report misuse of the E-Verify system
• File complaints and possible violations of verification policy and privacy laws
• Contest an E-Verify outcome

The hotline is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the continental US and can be reached at 888-897-7781.

How Verifying Employment Could Hurt Workers

While the methods of improving E-Verify get implemented, some have pointed out that a mandatory system for verifying employment doesn’t necessarily make sense in the long run.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that making E-Verify mandatory in the US would cost $3 billion over the next five years and $6.1 billion over the next decade.

The Social Security Administration estimated that 3.6 million US citizens would have to visit a Social Security Administration field office each year in order to keep their jobs.

Despite the implemented plans for improving E-Verify, a recent evaluation of the program found that found that 4.1 percent of initial responses were wrong. Less than 1 percent of the time, legally authorized workers were flagged as not work authorized, and 3.3 percent of all E-Verify cases involved unauthorized workers who were approved by the E-Verify system anyway.

Using E-Verify for verifying employment is a good start, but it will take many more improvements before the system will be flawless.