Fact of the Week: 07/08/08

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

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

 

 Fact Check

 

Don’t Extend a Broken Employment Verification System – Fix It!

 

Extending the current E-Verify system is the wrong direction for Congress to take.

  • E-Verify – formerly known as “Basic Pilot” – was established by Congress in 1996 as a pilot employment verification program.  The program is really still in its pilot stage, as little more than 1 percent of U.S. employers use the system, and it continues to rely on an insecure verification process.
  • The E-Verify pilot program’s authorization is due to expire in November 2008.
  • Calls on Congress to extend E-Verify’s authorization– without addressing significant and well-documented flaws in security and accuracy – would be a missed opportunity.
  • Rather than simply extending a system that Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized for its shortcomings, Congress should take this opportunity to provide comprehensive reform of the nation’s employment verification systems.
  • And Congress has before it a far superior alternative.  The New Employee Verification Act, H.R. 5515, relies on state-of-the-art technologies that hold the promise of a truly effective, electronic employment verification program.

 

NEVA will help ensure a legal workforce by creating an electronic employment verification system that protects workers, and makes employers part of the solution to provide effective worksite enforcement.

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 support H.R. 5515, the New Employee Verification Act as the best way to improve the current process of employment verification.  NEVA will create a secure, efficient and reliable system that will ensure a legal workforce and help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.