Efforts to have employers check the Social Security numbers of potential workers in a federal database may sound simple. Think again.
Like many efforts to stem illegal immigration, this one is fraught with unintended complications.
Rep. Dennis Moore, a Kansas Democrat, is among the sponsors of the New Employee Verification Act, which seeks to have every new employee in the United States checked by the federal E-Verify system.
That’s about 55 million checks each year. Some say the estimated cost to implement the law could be more than $10 billion.
E-Verify is a free, Internet-based data system that allows employers to check the validity of prospective employees’ Social Security numbers. More than 65,000 employers are using the program, which the Department of Homeland Security oversees.
E-Verify has improved since its beginning in 1997. Two strong enhancements announced this month are records of legal immigrants who have become naturalized U.S. citizens, and reference checks with border inspection records that could show the work authorization of immigrants who have recently legally entered the country.
But E-Verify is often still unable to flag stolen Social Security numbers because it cannot distinguish duplicate users of the same number. Critics also have pointed out mistakes in the database that could result in legal workers being denied employment.
Another concern is that employers will avoid hiring Hispanics in an attempt to dodge being fined or questioned by federal or state officials. That would unfairly limit job opportunities for many applicants.
New layers bureaucracy often unintentionally create a wider black market for people attempting to skirt new rules.
Illegal immigrants once purchased fraudulent documents with fake Social Security numbers to gain employment. Increasingly, escaping detection requires valid numbers.
So identity theft grows, harming more innocent individuals whose numbers are stolen.
Unfortunately, it is possible for an illegal immigrant to pass an E-Verify check, and the person whose identity has been stolen never knows.
Comprehensive immigration reform is needed. In the absence of that, these piecemeal actions can only go so far.
Quote:
"As laid out in S 2611, from this point the EEVS would work as follows:
After the employer submits the worker's information to the EEVS, the system
must provide a response no later than 10 days after the inquiry. A
"confirmation" indicates that SSA and/or USCIS have verified that the worker
is eligible for employment. A "tentative nonconfirmation" indicates that
the records maintained by SSA and/or USCIS do no match the information
submitted by the worker to the employer, and that further investigation is
necessary. If the employer receives a tentative nonconfirmation, the
employer must, not later than three days after receiving the notice, provide
the worker a written notice that includes the following: (1) information
about the reason for the notice; (2) the right to contest the notice; (3)
contact information for the appropriate agency and "instructions for
initiating such contest"; and (4) a 24-hour toll-free number to respond to
inquiries related to the notice. (This written notice is to be developed by
the DHS secretary and is to be made available to employers "in a language
other than English, as necessary and reasonable.")
The worker then has 10 days to submit clarifying information to SSA or
USCIS to contest the finding. The employer cannot take adverse action
against the worker during this time. If the worker does not contest the
tentative nonconfirmation within 10 days of receiving it, the
nonconfirmation becomes final and the employer must fire the worker.
A worker's failure to contest a tentative nonconfirmation would not be
considered an admission that he or she is not employment-eligible. However,
employers would be required to report any information relating to the worker
that the DHS secretary determines would assist the enforcement or
administration of immigration laws.
If a final confirmation or nonconfirmation is not issued by the DHS
secretary within 30 days after the worker contests a tentative
nonconfirmation, the worker will automatically be confirmed as
employment-authorized - and in the interim, the employer may not fire the
worker based on a suspicion that the worker is not employment-eligible.
This employment-authorized status will remain in effect either (1) during
any continuous period of employment, unless the DHS secretary determines
that the worker committed identity fraud, or (2) during the period that a
person is temporarily authorized to be employed. The process of issuing an
automatic (or "default") confirmation will remain in effect until the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) can certify that the EEVS can issue a
final confirmation of employment eligibility to workers who are eligible for
employment within 30 days of the initial inquiry at least 99 percent of the
time."