Overview of Principles
The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce represents the views of human resource professionals in thousands of small and large U.S. employers representing every sector of the U.S. 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 help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.
- The current document-based employment eligibility verification system falls far short of serving our national interests, as employers cannot know if documents are real or fake. Meanwhile the current electronic verification program, known as the "Basic Pilot," can safeguard against document fraud, but is vulnerable to the growing problem of identity theft.
The HR Initiative supports transforming the current paper-based method of employment verification with a biometrically-based or other state-of-the-art electronic verification system. If adequately funded and fairly administered, this new system could eliminate virtually all unauthorized employment.
However, before any employment verification system is mandated, it must meet the following Principles:
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.
The Human Resource Initiative will support an electronic employment verification system that adheres to the above principles. Above all, the system must work for employers, employees and the government alike. It must be easy to use, reliable, and it should not unfairly penalize honest employers for shortcomings that may befall the system.
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