Moving Forward With E-Verify: Program to Check Legal Status Already 99.5% Accurate

Sep 19, 2008

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The E-Verify program, which
allows employers to check the immigration status of new employees, has been
steadily improving and is now 99.5 percent accurate, according to a new paper
by the Center for Immigration Studies. This voluntary program is already
screening more than one in ten new hires nationwide, and as of September 13,
2008, has processed 6.21 million queries.

E-Verify is set to expire on November 30, 2008, unless it is re-authorized by
Congress. The House of Representatives has already passed a reauthorization
bill by a vote of 407-2. The Senate has yet to take action.

To help inform debate over E-Verify, the Center for Immigration Studies has
produced a thorough evaluation. The Backgrounder, entitled “If It’s Fixed,
Don’t Break It: Moving Forward with E-Verify,” is authored by Janice Kephart,
Director of National Security Studies at the Center and a former counsel to
the 9/11 Commission. The report covers the many facets of the E-Verify debate:
statistics regarding usage, cost, and effectiveness; legislative history;
executive orders affecting the program; the relationship of E-Verify to
worksite enforcement; and past improvements to the program as well as future
goals.

The report is available online at www.cis.org. Among the findings:
— As of the first half of FY 2007, only one-half of one percent of
eligible employees screened had to take additional steps (like
correcting Social Security records) to obtain work authorization;
overall, the system is 99.5% accurate.

— More than 93 percent of employees are verified within five seconds;
another 1.2 percent are verified within 24 hours. A new Photo
Screening
Tool and a streamlined procedure for naturalized citizens to receive
authorization are increasing accuracy and efficiency for employers and
employees; naturalized citizens no longer need to take remedial action
at Social Security.

— About 5 percent of new employees are not confirmed as work authorized,
mirroring the same percentage of illegal aliens estimated to be in the
labor force.

— When E-Verify became web-based later in 2004, 1,533 employers had
signed
up. As of September 13, 2008, there are 85,816 employers representing
over 446,000 sites and over 6.21 million queries processed.
Currently,
about 1,000 new employers join per week.

— Eleven states require use of E-Verify in certain circumstances (AZ,
CO,
GA, ID, MN, MO, MS, NC, OK, RI, and UT).

SOURCE Center for Immigration Studies

Janice Kephart of the Center for Immigration Studies, +1-202-466-8185,
jlk@cis.org

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