Mediaboss Marketing

FAIR Take | March2023

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) quietly unveiled updates to the E-Verify program to improve the electronic employment verification process required by employers. The E-Verify system is a free, reliable, and proven program that helps employers ensure they are hiring a legal workforce. It does so by allowing employers to compare employees information submitted on their I-9 Forms with records at the DHS and the Social SecurityAdministration. In essence, it acts as a virtualwall.

According to USCIS, the new and improved E-Verify system, called E-Verify NextGen, is an upcoming evolution which aims to streamline the verification process for both employees andemployees.

Over the years, USCIS has continued to make updates to the system to give greater ownership and control to employers. This time, the agency is streamlining the Form I-9 process to reduce errors and improve efficiencies. In particular, it is creating an employer-facing portal which allows for direct input by an employee, and then creates a downloadable FormI-9.

In addition to releasing a video of E-Verify NextGen to explain the new features, USCIS has provided the public with the following chart to better explain the benefits to employees andemployers.

Today, there are more than one million users of E-Verify, and on average, more than 1,500 new employers sign up weekly. At the same time, there are 12 million or more illegal aliens in the country, many working unlawfully at the expense of American workers. More than 5.5 million people have illegally entered the country since President Biden tookoffice.

Employment is one of the largest drivers of illegal immigration, and the Biden Administrations policies to provide work authorization to those that have entered the U.S. has helped fuel todays border crisis. Additionally, too many Americans have become victims of identity fraud due to illegal immigration and the lack ofenforcement.

FAIR supports legislation that mandates that all employers use E-Verify when recruiting and hiring new employees. Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to mandate use of the program, repealing the paper-based I-9 system. Other bills also include increased penalties for noncompliance as well as new procedures for the government to suspend social security numbers to protect victims of identityfraud.

Please go to FAIRs website to learn more about H.R. 319, the Legal Workforce Act or S. 156, the Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act.

Follow this link:
E-Verify: Improvements Make Mandatory Use a No-Brainer - Federation for American Immigration Reform