Greater Security in Employment Verification the Goal of HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce

Washington, D.C. – The nation’s leading human resource organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of HR professionals, as well as thousands of U.S. employers from every sector of the economy, today launched an initiative to help stem the tide of illegal immigration by bringing greater security and reliability to the nation’s employment verification system.  
 
The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (HR Initiative) announced its plans to
advocate for reforms to the current employee verification system, which now relies on either
insecure paper documentation or on an inadequate government-administered electronic
verification system, known as the “Basic Pilot.”  
 
“Effective, state-of-the-art verification is the most essential part of any immigration reform,” said
Susan R. Meisinger, President and CEO, Society for Human Resource Management.  “It is the
only way to prevent fraud and ensure a safe, legal and fair workplace.”
 
An abundance of vendors have created a significant market for inexpensive and nearly flawless
counterfeit identity documents.  Today’s employers face the significant challenge of identifying
fraudulent documents while at the same time risking being sanctioned by the government for
civil rights violations if they are too aggressive in their scrutiny. At the same time, an efficient
and reliable national electronic database for employers to check potential employee eligibility is non-existent. 
 
“Despite efforts by the government to make the ‘Basic Pilot’ work, the current system just isn’t
capable of handling the demand of six million U.S. employers processing millions of new hires each year,” stated Lynn Shotwell Executive Director American Council on International
Personnel.  “Faced with these realities, we need to explore new ways of providing a reliable and secure employment verification system.”
 
The members of the HR Initiative – through consultation with an expert group of Human
Resource professionals – has developed a set of principles that they believe must be implemented before any employment verification system is mandated by the federal government.  The five principles advocated by the HR Initiative include:
 
Principle 1: Shared Responsibility Among Government, Employers and Employees - U.S. employers, employees and the federal government share responsibility for a reliable, efficient,
accurate system to verify employment eligibility.  
 
Principle 2: Fair Enforcement – U.S. employers should be liable for their own hiring decisions,
not those made outside their control. 
 
Principle 3: Accuracy and Reliability  – Employers should not be forced to participate until the government provides assurances that the system is accurate and reliable. 
 
Principle 4: Ease of Use – The new verification system should be easy to understand and to
implement at all worksites. 

Principle 5: Deployment of Latest Technologies  – A new verification system must make false documents and identity theft ineffective. One way to achieve effective and efficient worksite
enforcement is to include biometric identifiers or other state-of-the-art technology in the identity
and work authorization process that is capable of automatically recognizing an individual’s
identity. 
 
"HR leaders in this country recognize that they will likely be asked by Congress to play an even
more critical role in ensuring a legal workforce," said Jeffrey C. McGuiness, President of the HR Policy Association. "To do that, we will need a much better system than what we have now to
make sure we don't simply generate more identity theft.  We are eager to work with Congress
and the Administration in building one."
 
The HR Initiative was founded by the following human resource organizations:   American Council on International Personnel   College and University Professional Association for Human Resources   HR Policy Association   International Public Management Association for Human Resources   Society for Human Resource Management
 
“An efficient system for verifying work eligibility is imperative for all employers. In the public
sector, an inefficient system has the potential to cost taxpayers money and reduce the ability to
provide services. Working with the coalition and Members of Congress to enact a fair and
efficient system is a high priority for our members,” said Neil E. Reichenberg, Executive
Director, International Public Management Association for Human Resources. 

“Our primary goal is to make sure that whatever Congress adopts is reliable, efficient and
effective for employers and employees alike,” concluded Andy Brantley, CEO, the College and  University Professional Association for Human Resources. 

Visit www.legal-workforce.org for an expanded description of the HR Initiative principles and to
learn more about the importance of employment verification issues.