US immigration still having problems with E-verify
February 25 2010 by Liam Clifford
The new scheme the Obama administration have introduced for employers to check workers aren’t illegal is not working, it was claimed today.
The E-verify system is failing to flag up over half the number of illegal workers it checks, research into the scheme has found.
The tool E-Verify, done online and used by employers, has been shown to wrongly identify illegal workers 54% of the times tested. The statistics released by research company Westat, concluded that the amount of illegal workers it does not identify was in large part due to the fact it cannot identify identity fraud.
The system E-Verify works on the basis that employers run worker's details against homeland security and social security databases in order to verify they are allowed to work in the US.
Senator Chuck Schumer, who is campaigning for US immigration reform and opposes expanding E-verify because of its flaws said;
"This is a wake-up call to anyone who thinks E-verify is an effective remedy to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants."
At present it is estimated that around 184,000 of the country’s employers are using E-verify out of a possible 8 million, the system is thought to be necessary if the proposed US immigration reform is to be approved in Congress.
US immigration and Homeland security were allocated about $100 million for E-Verify in its 2010 budget.
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