The Electronic Employment Verification System (E-Verify)

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) policy of sending “No-Match” letters to employers whose employees’ names and corresponding Social Security numbers do not match the agency’s records is emblematic of a broken immigration system that may operate in a theoretical world, but fails miserably in the real one. The policy makes no allowance for critical weaknesses in the system, including the SSA’s inaccurate and out-of-date database, nor does it address the impact of erroneous firings on legal workers, which gravely affects not only the workers but their children. Even when the records are correct, the policy does not actually resolve the problem of unauthorized workers, who will move elsewhere when denied permission to work.

The Electronic Employment Verification System, better known as EEVS or E-Verify, is a voluntary program run by the Department of Homeland Security along with the Social Security Administration that confirms an employee’s legal status to work. Unfortunately, President Bush has called for all federal contractors to be certified through the program in an executive order that ignores several concerns about the system. Many employees are erroneously labeled as unauthorized workers due to the out-of-date and inaccurate database that the program relies upon. By the SSA’s own estimates, E-Verify has a high error rate: 10% of the records for newly naturalized citizens are inaccurate, and nearly 13 million records of U.S.-born citizens are affected as well. Workers have been refused work for months due to computer error, a difficult and potentially devastating position for them and their families in these times of economic uncertainty.

MALDEF President and General Counsel John Trasviña has testified before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on the Social Security Administration to highlight the discriminatory nature of the program. Coupled with the lack of funding for the Social Security Administration and record backlogs for disability benefits, visas, and citizenship applications, updating the E-Verify program will only further strain the administration’s workload.

Despite the well-documented problems with E-Verify, some states are moving to require its use by employers. MALDEF believes that broadening the impact of E-Verify before its database flaws are fixed will create more long-term problems than it will solve.

Department Of Homeland Security’s New SSA “No-Match” Letter Rules Will Lead To Further Inappropriate Targeting Of Hispanic Businesses And Legal Employees

MALDEF calls on Secretary Chertoff and President Bush to abandon ineffective enforcement measures that only do more harm than good

August 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued its new “no-match” letter rules with an implementation date of 30 days from today. The rules refer to letters sent to employers by the Social Security Administration (SSA) informing them that certain employees’ names and corresponding Social Security numbers do not match the agency’s records.

“Today’s policy announcement from the administration will lead to chaos for employers and legal workers,” said John Trasviña, MALDEF President and General Counsel. “The reality is that ICE and Social Security records are notoriously inaccurate and out of date which will lead to unnecessary targeting and firing of legal workers. There will be no real impact on the number of unauthorized workers as those workers will simply go find work elsewhere.”

“In addition, ICE will use no-match letters as a way to target enforcement. Hardest hit will be small Latino businesses because of the greater number of Latinos they employ. What we need is real reform, not a rehash of ineffective enforcement policies that will only lead to unnecessary disruption of employers and legal workers.”

“The new rules set forth a number of burdensome requirements on employers who may undoubtedly apply them incorrectly. We demand that ICE and SSA provide the training necessary to safeguard the employment and livelihood of the thousands of families and children that will suffer from erroneous firings.”

President Bush’s Executive Order Imposes Flawed Electronic Verification System On Government Contractors

Naturalized citizens are hardest hit

June 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC — MALDEF President and General Counsel John Trasviña issued the following statement today on the Executive Order imposing electronic verification on employees of government contractors:

Last Friday’s action by President Bush imposing the experimental Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS) on all federal government contractors constitutes another blow to employers and workers in a worsening economy. Coupled with increased worksite raids, the Bush Administration immigration strategy has produced unprecedented fears among immigrants – legally authorized or not – and produced no winners. Because of the System’s unacceptably high error rate, especially for naturalized United States citizens, many American workers will be denied job opportunities not because they are unauthorized or unqualified, but because they are unable to convince a computer they do not belong on the government’s new “no-work” list.

President Bush, by amending Executive Order 12989, has declared that all federal government contractors must verify their employees’ immigration status with “E-Verify,” a computerized system which relies upon a federal government database plagued with a 4.1% error rate for all workers and up to a 10% error rate for newly naturalized citizens. On top of the inaccurate, out-of-date, and incomplete government record system, the federal government has little control over employer misuse of the system. Twenty years of experience with employer sanctions has increased discrimination and unlawful scrutiny of Latino, Asian American and other workers thought to be foreign because of their name, accent or appearance. Just in the past year, the Department of Labor obtained over $51 million in backpay and benefits from federal contractors for discriminating against over 22,000 of their employees.

President Bush’s description of EEVS as “the best available means to confirm the identity and work eligibility of all employees” ignores its inability to combat identity theft, its susceptibility to false documents, and the federal government’s inability to ensure that employers will use the system correctly. Instead of imposing EEVS, still in its test stage, to over 100,000 federal contractors, the Bush Administration should have taken steps to improve the system and to train America’s employers and workers about how it works.

The Executive Order fails to bring us any closer to fixing the nation’s broken immigration system or meeting the legitimate needs of America’s employers. America’s employers need workers with legal immigration status. America’s workers need a system that will protect their ability to work free of coercion and simply and accurately determine their work authorization. Unauthorized workers who toil in some of the most dangerous and difficult work conditions need an opportunity to obtain legal status.