The sweeping immigration measure advancing rapidly in the Senate goes far beyond much-debated border security measures and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with a crucial requirement that could affect every American who takes a new job in the future. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/us/politics/bill-to-expand-us-database-to-verify-hires.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp The provision, a linchpin of the legislation, would require all employers in the country within five years to use a federal electronic system to verify the legal eligibility to work of every new hire, including American citizens. But there has been little debate up to now about the provision to expand the federal system, which is known as E-Verify, and critics of the measure as well as some proponents worry that most Americans are unaware of the mandate’s broad scope.
“I don’t think people really understand that this creates a regulation not just for every employer, or for every immigrant, but also for every citizen in this country,”
The measure would increase the use of photograph technology to eliminate a flaw in the system. The recently added tool improves accuracy by allowing employers to match a photo in the E-Verify system with a document presented by the new employee.
The E-Verify mandate is one of the hard “triggers” in the legislation: under its terms, the system must be in use nationwide before any immigrants who had been here illegally can apply for permanent resident green cards, a crucial step on the path to citizenship.
The E-Verify system, which is run by Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security.
Under the proposed immigration changes, the system would quickly grow to include all of the nation’s 7.3 million employers and more than 156 million workers.