E-Verify is currently used by only a fraction of our nation’s employers, but its ongoing technological snafus, database errors and bureaucratic bungling have caused enormous financial losses for both employers and employees. The program also places an incredible strain on an already overburdened Social Security Administration.

Status
Legislation making E-Verify mandatory is currently attached to several bills, including the Shuler/Tancredo SAVE Act (H.R. 4088). In addition, there is a discharge petition being circulated on the SAVE Act which representatives should not sign.

In early June, President Bush issued a National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive requiring all governmental contracts to go through an employment verification process, checking potential employees against their Social Security file

It is uncertain who will handle this massive expansion of a pilot program that even reports commissioned by DHS said was a disaster in the making. This Presidential Directive did not identify which government workers will respond to the requests of the thousands of government contractor employees who will be wrongly terminated as a result of government data errors.

Recommendation
Members of Congress should oppose the SAVE Act (H.R. 4088) or any similar measure containing employment verification language if it comes up for a vote; refuse to co-sponsor or to remove their names as co-sponsors of the SAVE Act; name from the SAVE Act discharge petition. Lawmakers should also support legislation mandating the government clean up its error-ridden databases before any verification programs become law.