ACLU Welcomes Development, Calls For Full Examination Of E-Verify
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
(202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON – A
requirement to use a flawed employment verification program (E-Verify) for all
recipients of stimulus funding was stripped out of the conference report for the
economic stimulus package on Capitol Hill today. The American Civil Liberties
Union applauds this development, noting that if the E-Verify mandate had been
included, the stimulus package could have failed to achieve its objective of
putting unemployed Americans back to work. E-Verify, a Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) initiative, checks employees’ citizenship status against Social
Security Administration and DHS files that are plagued with errors.
The
conference committee has been meeting this week to iron out the differences in
the stimulus packages passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The
House version contained a provision that all recipients of stimulus funding
would be required to use the E-Verify system. The Senate version, passed on
Tuesday, did not contain the mandate.
“Removing the problematic
employment verification provision from the economic stimulus package will help
unemployed Americans get back to work,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of
the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “E-Verify is known to create significant
delays in hiring new employees, a consequence our economy and American workers
should not have to suffer in such difficult economic times. Both employers and
employees can now sleep easier knowing their efforts to find employment will not
be unnecessarily thwarted once President Obama enacts the stimulus
funding.”
This latest development will likely lead to a debate in
Congress on employment verification over the next three weeks, with the
expiration for authorization of E-Verify coming up on March 6. Furthering the
discussion is the program review ordered by DHS Secretary Janet
Napolitano.
“By stripping out this counterintuitive provision in the
stimulus package, Congress has reaffirmed the fact that E-Verify should be
voluntary at best,” said Timothy Sparapani, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel.
“Secretary Napolitano’s review should conclude that employment verification
systems are not an effective means of enforcing immigration policy. The
conference committee has done the right thing by removing E-Verify from the
stimulus package.”
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