WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Sam Johnson today renewed their call for overhauling the federal employee verification program after an independent analysis found it is failing to catch more than half the unauthorized workers it checks.
Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and Johnson, a Texas Republican, say it is very troubling that the online E-Verify program could not confirm whether the information presented to employers by workers was their own.
“Businesses owners across Arizona have repeatedly told me that E-Verify is not an accurate or reliable employee screening tool and now we have confirmation from a credible and independent source,” said Giffords. “The program needs to be strengthened and that is exactly what Rep. Johnson and I are proposing to do with our legislation.”
Said Johnson, “I am pleased to join Rep. Giffords and employers across America in an effort to make our employment verification program as fool-proof as possible. We have known for a long time that E-Verify is prone to errors. We must work toward ensuring a legal workforce, securing workers’ identities and helping keep illegal immigrants from working here without authorization.”
According to the Associated Press, a research company that evaluated E-Verify for the Department of Homeland Security found that the program wrongly clears illegal workers about 54 percent of the time.
The company, Westat, determined that “E-Verify missed so many illegal workers mainly because it can't detect identity fraud.”
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In 2008, after first learning of the problems associated with E-Verify, Giffords and Johnson introduced the New Employee Verification Act. Known as NEVA, the bill’s goal is make sure employers do not unknowingly abet the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States by providing them with a place to work.
NEVA is intended to prevent unauthorized work in the United States by requiring verification of all new hires through the use of a more reliable, technologically advanced verification system than currently exists.
The E-Verify system, which Arizona employers are required to use, only matches names and birthdates with Social Security Numbers or immigration document numbers. If these items match, the system will return the individual as an authorized worker even if those documents don’t belong to the person presenting them.
NEVA would create a voluntary biometrics option that employers could choose to use in the verification process. This system would include a standard background check and the collection of a “biometric” characteristic — such as a thumbprint — to secure an employee’s identity and prevent the illegal use of a Social Security number, stolen or fraudulently-obtained drivers’ licenses or altered identification documents.