Fact of the Week: 06/05/08

Thursday, June 5, 2008

It’s Time for Congress to Create an Employment Verification System That Works

 

 Fact Check

 

How to Fix a Broken Employment Verification System

Did you know the New Employee Verification Act, H.R. 5515, will replace the current failed, paper-based I-9 employment verification process with a mandatory electronic system to verify the work authorization of new hires?

  • Immigration reform passed in 1986 created an employment verification system that allows the use of 24 different documents to prove identity and eligibility to work in the U.S.  The system is still in use today and has proven unable to prevent unauthorized employment, and actually encourages unauthorized workers to engage in fraud and identity theft to obtain jobs.
  • The New Employee Verification Act (or NEVA) would eliminate the failed paper-based process of the last two decades and create an efficient and reliable electronic system for employers to verify the work authorization of their newly hired employees.
  • Additionally, NEVA helps prevent identity theft through creating a new voluntary system whereby workers would authenticate and secure their identity through cutting-edge biometric technology.  NEVA would also allow workers to block their Social Security number from being used by individuals seeking unlawful employment in the United States.

 

 NEVA will help ensure a legal workforce by creating an electronic employment verification system that is efficient and reliable.

 To learn more, visit www.legal-workforce.org.

 # # #

The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (www.legal-workforce.org) represents human resource professionals in thousands of small and large U.S. employers representing every sector of the American economy.  The HR Initiative and its members are seeking to improve the current process of employment verification by creating a secure, efficient and reliable system that will ensure a legal workforce and help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.