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Bush administration defends E-Verify

The nation’s top immigration official on Tuesday defended a federal system — known as E-Verify — that allows businesses to check the legal status of workers.

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“E-Verify is the best available tool for employers to gain quick and easy verification information for their new hires,” said Jonathan Scharfen, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (pictured here).

Scharfen testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, amid growing concerns that the verification system could mistakenly reject legal residents and citizens.

Scharfen said that 99.5 percent of all people authorized to work are verified immediately through the E-Verify system.

E-Verify is currently voluntary in most states, but several proposals in Congress would make it a requirement for all U.S. businesses.

In addition, the White House announced Monday that President Bush has signed an executive order that requires all future government contractors to verify whether their employees are in the United States legally.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who chairs the committee, pointed to the case of Traci Hong, a naturalized citizen who is an attorney that works for the panel. Hong was run through the E-Verify system last year and was not immediately approved.

It took six separate trips to the Social Security office to fix the problem, Lofgren said. “And she is an immigration lawyer working for the chair of the immigration subcommittee.”

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By Brittanicus

June 10, 2008 9:33 PM | Link to this

(ICE) does not discriminate, and therefore if any person gets caught offering refuge to ‘illegal aliens’ NOT IMMIGRANTS. They will be arrested for aiding and abetting illegal foreign nationals. Nobody must be exempt from investigation including government contractors, or even employment agencies who employ laborers. Today! NOW! (ICE) is now being offered intelligence by the public-at-large. People are becoming ‘informants’ and using their inside knowledge to report suspicious activity regarding fraudulent Social Security Numbers and large numbers of individuals who cannot comprehend English was certain to draw attention. Amongst the illegal aliens who entered our nation came many hard-core criminals, child pedophiles, female attackers, murders, robbers and Social security theft that do not get wide press.

Ice has a ICE Tipline: 1-866-DHS-2ICE for intelligence to locate illegal aliens, or predatory businesses that employ them. The power to help America has been returned to the general public? If we can only pass the Federal SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) that Democrats are trying to keep away from the public eye. Its funding will build a massive force of interior ICE agents, including 20.000 border patrol enforcement to root out the culprits and the E-verify data base that is 90.5 percent effective. NUMBERSUSA.

This funding is a pittance to what Taxpayers are forced to support currently with federal mandates, such as health care, education and incarceration. If you want your immigration laws fully funded, send your demands to Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Ask her why she is intimidating her members not to endorse the SAVE ACT. (202-224-3121 )

By Brittania

June 23, 2008 3:56 PM | Link to this

Having gone through the visa, green card, citizen route many years ago, I’m constantly confused by, and amused at, the way the subject of immigration is now being handled.

I thought it was quite simple: First, one demonstrated the fact that one could speak and understand English at a citizenship interview; and, second, one’s employer was required to complete an immigration form I-9 to keep on file (separate from one’s personnel records) together with copies of documentation verifying that one was legally entitled to live and work in the United States.

Are these two requirements no longer in force?

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