H1B Visa Lawyer Blog
Second part of our ten part series examining the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) publication of “What to Watch Out for on Immigration in 2011.”
Topic #2: Mandatory Employment Verification
E-Verify (Electronic Employment Verification System) a system widely used by employers to check the authenticity and legality of employees to work in the United States will likely become a mandatory requirement for all employers.
Though the E-Verify system has been effective at cutting down the number of illegal employees in the workplace, AILA believes there are still problems with privacy, civil liberties, as well as budgetary and technological concerns that need to be worked out. AILA further concludes that the majority of E-Verify legislation proposed does not address these concerns and that mandatory usage of the system could be potentially harmful. According to data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), approximately 1.2 million authorized workers could be displaced if E-Verify were made a requirement because the database has high percentages of incorrect and outdated information.
AILA also argues that many employers misuse the program by pre-screening potential employees and by failing to inform employees of their rights under the program. Other errors of the program led to 22% of restricted work assignments, 16% were delayed job training and 2% received reduced wages. At a time when our economy is already hurting, AILA maintains that making E-Verify mandatory without fixing the flaws would only make the situation worse.
Until the flaws in the system are fixed, we at MVP Law Group agree that E-Verify should not become a mandatory requirement for all employers.