Amnesty Supporters Criticize E-Verify in Senate and House Subcommittee Hearings
Last week, E-Verify — the electronic employee verification system that allows employers to verify the work eligibility of their employees - was the topic at both Senate and House subcommittee hearings. (See FAIR's E-Verify Backgrounder). The Senate Judiciary Committee's Immigration Subcommittee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Government Management, Organization, and Procurement Subcommittee heard from witnesses about the program.
Despite the great strides that E-Verify has made since its inception in 1996 and its great popularity, some in Congress still question its effectiveness. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, presented harsh criticism of E-Verify, calling the program "half-hearted and flawed." Sen. Schumer and other members of the subcommittee expressed concern about what they say is an inability of the system to detect document fraud and identity theft. Senator Schumer did not mention the vast amount of fraud the program can detect when illegal aliens attempt to gain employment by providing invalid Social Security numbers. In fact, although the program reduces an employer's dependence on screening an identification document, Sen. Schumer incorrectly stated that the current system "require[s] employers to make subjective determinations about an employee's identity or legal status."
In order for Congress to move forward with a large-scale amnesty bill, Schumer proposed that his subcommittee look into incorporating "non-forgeable" biometric data into E-Verify. The Subcommittee's Ranking Member, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), largely agreed with Sen. Schumer, while Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) expressed apprehension with the proposed biometric system. Sen. Sessions expressed satisfaction with E-Verify and the improvements that the system has made, stating that he is "baffled by people who don't use it." (Senate Immigration Subcommittee Hearing, July 21, 2009).
Long-time amnesty advocate Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) testified at the Senate hearing that mandatory employee verification alone will not fix our broken immigration system because "undocumented workers are already an integral part of our country, economy, communities and families." Rep. Gutierrez spoke in support of the biometric-based employment verification system proposed by fellow amnesty proponent, Sen. Schumer. (Testimony of Luis Gutierrez, July 21, 2009).
Among the second panel of witnesses, Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Deputy Director Michael Aytes noted the steps his agency is taking to strengthen the program, including:
Increased oversight (including monitoring and compliance);
The recent addition of passport information to the system; and
Looking at working with states to incorporate the use of driver's licenses into an E-Verify accessible database. (Testimony of Michael Aytes, July 21, 2009).
Former Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) Commissioner James Ziglar recommended incorporating biometric components into E-Verify, but warned against "scrapping the present system and all of the hard work that has been done to date" (Testimony of James Ziglar, July 21, 2009). Ziglar admitted that it would be costly and time consuming to incorporate biometrics into E-Verify, but former USCIS Chief Counsel Lynden Melmed argued that "the cost of not doing it is too significant… it is a question of how to pay for it." (Senate Immigration Subcommittee Hearing, July 21, 2009).
On the House side, Members of the Government Management, Organization, and Procurement Subcommittee expressed a different set of concerns. With the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) recent announcement that it intends to finally implement a Bush-era regulation to require most federal contractors to use E-Verify (DHS Press Release, July 8, 2009), some subcommittee members expressed concern that USCIS would not be able to handle the surge of new activity. However, the Deputy Associate Director of the National Security and Records Verification Directorate within USCIS, Gerri Ratliff, assured the subcommittee that the system can handle the additional workload.
At the House hearing, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) suggested that the government should charge employers for using E-Verify. (House Government Management, Organization, and Procurement Subcommittee Hearing, July 23, 2009). Such an idea is unwise and overlooks several key points. First, the federal government is responsible for securing our borders and enforcing immigration laws. E-Verify relies on employers' voluntary use of the program to further a federal government responsibility. It is important that the federal government take responsibility for the cost of enforcement rather than pass that cost on to patriotic employers who are currently using the system. Second, America is suffering from a jobs deficit. E-Verify makes sure available jobs are going to legal American workers and not illegal aliens. By posing a burden on employers, Congress runs the risk that employers would stop using E-Verify. This would enable illegal aliens to obtain available jobs instead of ensuring those jobs go to legal American workers. Third, E-Verify only costs the government about $140 million a year. For the money, E-Verify is one of the most cost-effective programs administered by the federal government. By trying to pass that cost on to employers, Congress could actually end up discouraging the program's use, which would undermine E-Verify's effectiveness.
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