From CIS.org: WASHINGTON (March 8, 2009) – The E-Verify program will shut down thus week, unless it is reauthorized by Congress. The free, online system run by the Department of Homeland Security enables employers to check that new hires are indeed eligible to work in the United States, rather than relying only on easily forged paper documents.
To help inform the debate over this program, the Center for Immigration Studies has released new data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (online at http://cis.org/node/1087 ) that shows online employer queries of the system are already approaching 3 million so far this year, nearly half the 6.6 million queries for all of 2008, which was itself more than double the use of the system in 2007. If the usage for 2009 continues at the same rate, the number of employer queries for this year will be 442% greater than in 2007.
In 2008, about one in eight new hires nationwide was checked through E-Verify, and if the projected growth rate continues, perhaps one-quarter or one-third of all new hires will be verified by the system, putting it well on the way to becoming a standard hiring practice for all legitimate employers.
In addition, new passport data now available from the State Department is streamlining work authorization for foreign-born U.S. citizens. Increased employer satisfaction with E-Verify – demonstrated by the steady increases in employer sign-ups and queries with E-Verify – indicates that E-Verify is one of the most successful programs in government.
Janice Kephart, Director of National Security Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, has released this data as a follow-up to her September 2008 Backgrounder, ”If It’s Fixed, Don’t Break It: Moving Forward with E-Verify,” online at http://cis.org/Everify .
