U.S. pushes E-verify for hires

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Few federal agencies are using the government's own employment-verification system designed to prevent hiring illegal aliens, with just the Department of Homeland Security and a few other scattered offices having signed up.

That all changes next month, when the federal government takes the lead in trying to prove the system is user-friendly and works. Under a new directive, every new federal hire is required to be checked against E-Verify, the new name for a decade-old system known as the Basic Pilot Program that has become the backbone of many companies' hiring process as they try to weed out illegal aliens.

The newly re-branded system gets a formal public release at a press conference today at the headquarters for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with officials hoping to prove to businesses the system is running, is easy to use and can help them avoid trouble from an expected crackdown on employers.

"The expectations for the program just keep exploding, and we want to meet those expectations," said Gerri Ratliff, who heads USCIS' verification division and who talked with The Washington Times about E-Verify earlier this month.

But with more than 22,000 companies registered, the program already is on the defensive, with some companies complaining it is burdensome and Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich signing a law this month blocking companies in that state from using the program as of Jan. 1. Yesterday, the Homeland Security Department sued in federal district court to overturn that law.

The system was one of three test programs created by Congress in the 1990s to crack down on illegal aliens getting jobs. The other two were discontinued, but E-Verify has seen phenomenal growth, with 2.9 million requests for verification submitted from Oct. 1 through Aug. 31 — up from 1.2 million for fiscal 2006.

Employers use a Web site to enter a potential hire's information, and the system returns with either an instant verification or a tentative nonconfirmation.

Companies sign a memorandum with USCIS setting out terms, including guidelines to make sure they aren't using the system in a discriminatory way. With a bigger budget, agency officials say they are prepared to track compliance, and report discrimination to the Justice Department. They also are preparing guidelines for how to report repeat-offender companies who appear to be hiring illegal aliens to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The program weeds out about 5 percent of all new applicants as not authorized to work.

Some states and industries have embraced the program more enthusiastically. New York companies submitted just 80,587 queries through Aug. 31 of fiscal 2007, less than half the 169,830 submitted by North Carolina employers.