U.S. Turns to E-Verify To Keep Out Undocumented | |
Immigration Korner By Felicia Persaud |
CaribWorldNews, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 13, 2008: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Department of Commerce Secretary Gutierrez this week unveiled a new plan which they hope will keep undocumented workers from being hired by federal contractors.
The E-Verify program is a free Internet-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the legal status of new hires within seconds.
DHS officials said the program will be operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in partnership with the Social Security Administration, as the electronic employment eligibility verification system that all federal contractors must use as required by Executive Order 12989.
"A large part of our success in enforcing the nation's immigration laws hinges on equipping employers with the tools to determine quickly and effectively if a worker is legal or illegal," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "E-Verify is a proven tool that helps employers immediately verify the legal working status for all new hires."
President George W. Bush has amended Executive Order 12989 in order to direct all federal departments and agencies to require contractors, as a condition of each future federal contract, to agree to use an electronic employment eligibility verification system – designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security – to verify the employment eligibility of all persons hired during the contract term and all persons performing work within the United States on the federal contract.
More than 69,000 employers currently rely on E-Verify to determine that their new hires are authorized to work in the United States. Employers have run more than 4 million employment verification queries so far in fiscal year 2008. Of those queries, 99.5 percent of qualified employees are cleared automatically by E-Verify.
It is illegal for a company to knowingly hire undocumented immigrants.
Source: http://www.hardbeatnews.com/