Home > The Border Line > Archives > 2008 > June > 10 > Entry
Feds must check workers’ legal status
Federal contractors must verify that their employees are in the United States legally, under an executive order signed by President Bush.
The White House announced Monday that the president signed the order last week.
It says that the executive branch will “enforce fully the immigration laws of the United States, including the detection and removal of illegal aliens and the imposition of legal sanctions against employers that hire illegal aliens.”
The order allows Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff to determine what verification system future contractors must use. He chose a federal system known as E-Verify.
Using the Internet-based system, which is currently voluntary, an employer can check within seconds whether employees are in the United States legally by comparing their information to electronic government records.
If the information doesn’t match, the employee has an opportunity to correct the paperwork, often through a trip to a Social Security office.
Critics — including civil rights organizations and Hispanic groups — have assailed E-verify, saying that it relies on faulty government databases and would cause thousands of citizens and legal residents to be mistakenly rejected for work. They also say it would cripple the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Read more here.
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By Puzzled
June 10, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this
I’m puzzled that problems with the databases being found and corrected would be a bad thing. If my information was faulty I’d probably want it fixed. How about you?