Fact of the Week: 06/26/08

Thursday, June 26, 2008

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

 

 Fact Check

 

How to Fix a Broken Employment Verification System

 

The New Employee Verification Act, H.R. 5515 (NEVA) is the best choice for employers and employees. 

Contrary to mandated E-Verify:

  • NEVA ensures that no law abiding U.S. citizen is required to receive permission to work from a federal law enforcement agency.  Data on all U.S. citizens would be run through the Social Security Administration, which already maintains records on working Americans.  Only non-citizens would be screened by the Department of Homeland Security.
  • NEVA provides workers caught in the system due to an error in government records with an opportunity to appeal, as well as compensation for lost wages.
  • NEVA would allow employers to voluntarily access a network of private sector experts, certified by the federal government, to not only verify work authorization of their new employees, but to authenticate and to then safeguard through biometrics the identity of their employees – thereby reducing identity theft in the workplace.
  • NEVA allows individuals to check their own Social Security records and to “lock” their Social Security number for employment verification purposes, preventing its fraudulent use.  

 

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.

 

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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.