An evaluation of the E-Verify program conducted about two years ago has just been released. (The 338-page pdf is here.) It estimates, among other things, that about half of illegal aliens who were screened between April and June 2008 managed to foil the system and get approved for employment, and opponents of immigration enforcement are tickled pink. Chuck Schumer, who is taking the lead on amnesty, said, "This is a wake-up call to anyone who thinks E-Verify is an effective remedy to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants." Likewise, former Kennedy staffer Marc Rosenblum said, "Clearly it means it's not doing its No. 1 job well enough."

University of Idaho employees will be required to prove their eligibility to work in the United States, citing requirements stemming from federal funding.

Employees will participate in E-Verify sessions, putting forth documentation confirming they are legal to work in the United States. Once in the system, Social Security, the Department of Homeland Security and the federal government verify the information. "Because we receive a lot of federal contracts, it got to the point where if we weren't going to comply we may very well risk losing all the contracts," said Lucy Aragon, human resources assistant.

We have a situation where foreign lawbreakers were taking 25 jobs from legal Americans, not to mention they were in contact with food and possibly never vaccinated for illnesses and/or received medical attention for certain ailments. Unfortunately, even more incidents like this one have proven this is not an isolated event, but a nationwide problem.

A recent federal investigation found that 1,600 of the 4,500 employees at factories in Los Angeles for the clothing company American Apparel got their jobs using “suspect and not valid” eligibility documentation. American Apparel is the largest clothing manufacturer in the United States. For a company that prides itself on clothes “Made in the U.S.A.,” it seems their clothes are not made by legal U.S. citizens.

New statistics on E-Verify suggest that keeping illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs is a goal increasingly within reach.

The Center for Immigration Studies has made available updated Department of Homeland Security numbers that make plain the effectiveness and growing use of the federal electronic system, through which employers can distinguish illegal aliens from legitimate job applicants.

Rep. Heath Shuler has again introduced the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement Act to combat the costly dilemma of illegal immigration in the U.S.


Since President Obama and this Congress are unlikely to achieve anything bigger, Congress should pass Shuler's bill.

A series of Senate floor votes this week seeking to toughen immigration enforcement is giving the Obama administration its first real taste of the chilly climate for overhauling immigration laws.

On Thursday, the Senate approved a measure that would effectively overturn an immigration-enforcement decision announced one day earlier by the Obama administration. The Department of Homeland Security had said Wednesday that it would rescind a Bush administration program aimed at forcing employers to fire workers who are unable to resolve discrepancies in their Social Security records.

Governor Carcieri, who has led the charge in Rhode Island to crack down on illegal immigration, applauded the Obama administration Thursday afternoon for mandating that federal contractors confirm the immigration status of employees. The program goes into effect in September.

It was Carcieri who in 2008 signed an executive order that in part required state agencies and vendors to use the federal E-Verify program to ensure that new hires are allowed to work in the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today strengthened employment eligibility verification by announcing the Administration’s support for a regulation that will award federal contracts only to employers who use E-Verify to check employee work authorization. The declaration came as Secretary Napolitano announced the Department's intention to rescind the Social Security No-Match Rule, which has never been implemented and has been blocked by court order, in favor of the more modern and effective E-Verify system.

The voluntary federal program has seen a rapid growth in use this year, Department of Homeland Security records show. More than 1,000 employers are signing up each week on average, and employment checks are approaching 200,000 a week.

Because the Obama administration has slowed the implementation of a 2007 executive order signed by Pres. George W. Bush that would have mandated federal contractors and subcontractors use an otherwise voluntary work authorization database, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley hopes Congress will make the process law.

Grassley, a longtime supporter of the program now known as E-Verify, has introduced an amendment that would require any entity that enters into a contract with the federal government to participate in the E-Verify program.