Just one point, that while eVerify is growing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is working well. The system still just tests identity papers, not identities, and not who is actually working. Just locally I’ve heard of several ways employees and employers can evade the system, and it is not hard.
That the system is growing, and with fewer complaints, is a good indicator that it is not working. A system that is working would get stiff resistance.
The system is working very well in terms of accuracy and responsiveness. The current accuracy rate of E-Verify is better than 99.5 percent. More than 96.9 percent of employees queried through the system are verified as employment-authorized in mere seconds. Only 0.3 percent of employees who receive a tentative non-confirmation must contact the Social Security Administration or (for certain noncitizens) USCIS to correct mistakes on their records – an action also necessary to receive either retirement or immigration benefits.
The identity theft loophole—where one person steals or purchases the name and Social Security number of another person—is still a problem for E-Verify. Since the program matches name and Social Security number, an individual will be confirmed as work authorized as long as he is using the name that matches the Social Security number. This means that some number of illegal aliens has gone through E-Verify undetected because they presented a stolen identity to the employer.
DHS has taken a significant step toward closing this loophole by including photos from immigration documents in the system, so an employer verifying a noncitizen employee will be able to compare the photo on the immigration document presented by the employee with the photo that comes up on his computer screen during the verification process.
The Social Security Administration could close the loophole almost entirely if it would simply notify workers with more than one employer making contributions to their Social Security account numbers and ask them to report if they were not actually working for each of those employers. However, SSA has a policy of not informing the victims of identity theft.
A more costly solution would be for DHS to incorporate the photos of citizens from passport and motor vehicle files into E-Verify, in the same way it has incorporated photos from immigration documents. DHS has been exploring this option, but has yet to finalize agreements with the State Department and state DMVs.
That the system is growing, and with fewer complaints, is a good indicator that it is not working. A system that is working would get stiff resistance.
Au contraire. The system is getting tremendous resistance from the US Chamber of Commerce, La Raza, unions, etc. It took us nearly four years to get a watered down bill in VA passed. It has been an inch by inch fight. We had to convince the Obama administration to just continue the program. They refused to make it permanent.
There are over 8 million illegal aliens holding jobs in the US while 25 million Americans are looking for fulltime employment. And we are still bringing in 125,000 LEGAL FOREIGN WORKERS a month now. This includes new permanent residents (green cards) and long-term temporary visas and others who are authorized to take a job. This makes no sense.