On E-Verify, Mr. Mayorkas said the program remains a strong tool to help make sure jobs go to citizens and legal immigrants.

“It protects employees from exploitive employers. It enables employers to ensure the lawfulness of their work force, and therefore comply with the law,” he said.

E-Verify began in the 1990s as a voluntary pilot program to allow employers to check new hires’ Social Security numbers to see if they were eligible to work.

More than 170,000 employers are signed up to use the Web-based system. Some states have made its use mandatory for all businesses, and others have required state contractors to use it. The federal government this year began requiring contractors to check both new hires and all employees who are working on federal contracts.

Nearly 97 percent of all workers are approved automatically, while the rest are allowed to contest a non-confirmation. Only three-tenths of a percent of those checked successfully contest a non-confirmation.

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