E-Verify Deeply Flawed, Will Hurt Lawful U.S. Workers

That is what Senior Policy Analyst Michele Waslin of the Immigration Policy Center of the American Immigration Law Foundation is saying in an article today. Waslin is responding to a new report about E-Verify from Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). She says the new report is “misleading” in stating that E-Verify is “99.5 percent accurate”.

Last Month, the Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report last showing CIS founder John Tanton and groups associated with it to be linked to openly racist organizations.

According to the Waslin, CIS has been trying to convince the public and Congress to “reauthorize and expand” the program so that it would be mandatory for all employers.

“This would mean that every single U.S. worker would have to get permission from the government to work - and the impact of a single error could be devastating.”

This, Waslin says, would “harm lawful U.S. workers”.

Waslin goes on to cite testimony from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that says it is misleading to make claims that E-Verify’s error rate is less than 1 percent.

“Richard Stana of the Government Accountability Office testified at a May 2008 Congressional hearing that it was "misleading" to claim that the E-Verify error rate is less than 1 percent. In fact, many of the tens of thousands of workers who receive final non-confirmations are actually work-authorized.”

The bottom line, the article says, “the accuracy rate of E-Verify is unacceptable - each error means that a U.S. citizen or legal U.S. worker could be denied employment and a paycheck because the government database contains an error” And that, “E-Verify is a problematic program that has harmful consequences for U.S. workers and employers.”

Resources:
Expanding Flawed E-Verify System Will Hurt Lawful Workers
The Tanton Files: FAIR Founder’s Racism Revealed

Posted in: American Immigration Law Foundation,Center for Immigration Studies,CIS,E-Verify,Immigration Policy Center,Michele Waslin