Employee Verification Leave Behind
Proposals are making their way through Congress that would dramatically expand the government’s flawed “E-Verify” program – ensuring that millions of Americans will be barred from working. If passed, every employer in the United States will be required to verify the eligibility to work of every current and prospective employee, including U.S. citizens.
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.