Death of Iowa woman puts E-Verify in spotlight
System designed to check identity, immigration status of job applicants
The employers of an undocumented immigrant charged in the killing of 20year-old Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa initially said they had run the worker through a federal system to verify his immigration status.
But the owners of Yarrabee Farms in Brooklyn, Iowa, later admitted that they had not used the E-Verify system to ensure that Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, was legally in the country and allowed to work. They had been using a different, outdated system and vowed to immediately start using E-Verify for all future employees.
The story in Iowa has put a spotlight on the E-Verify system and its use by business owners in checking the immigration status of job applicants. It’s estimated that roughly half of the workforce on U.S. farms is undocumented.
Here’s a look at the E-Verify system, how it operates and the debate over the future of the program.
What is E-Verify?
Created by Congress in 1996 and signed into law by former President Bill Clinton, E-Verify is an online tool that employers can use to verify the identity and immigration status of job applicants.
It was designed to give employers a quick and easy way to verify that applicants have legal status in the U.S. and are eligible to work. It is a federal crime to knowingly hire undocumented immigrants, making E-Verify a way that employers can shield themselves from breaking that law.
All job applicants are required to fill out an employment eligibility form, known as an I-9, and provide their name, date of birth, Social Security number and other information. Employers can then input that data into the EVerify website, which checks the information against databases maintained by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
The system has been augmented recently to include a photo verification step intended to prevent job applicants from using stolen or forged IDs. But the system only requires that an employer compare whatever photograph the government has on file with the photograph on the identification provided by the employee.
If everything checks out, the employer sees a green check mark and the employee can begin working. If the system cannot verify the employee, the system returns a “tentative non-confirmation.” The employee is then responsible for correcting his or her information with the government.
How many businesses use it?
E-Verify is not mandatory for most U.S. businesses, but the number of companies using it has exploded in the past decade.
The federal government requires that all agencies, and all private businesses working as contractors for the federal government, use E-Verify. In recent years, 24 states have passed laws requiring some businesses – including state agencies, contractors, university systems and large, private businesses – to use the system.
From 2006 to 2018, the number of employers enrolled in E-Verify grew from 5,272 to 803,915, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the program.
Is the system foolproof?
Put simply, no.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services boasts that the system approves more than 99 percent of job applicants entered. But with more than 30 million E-Verify checks run each year, that remaining 1 percent can affect tens of thousands of people.
In some cases, the system incorrectly raises red flags on U.S. citizens and legal immigrants because their names aren’t properly formatted in government databases. That forces people to spend weeks correcting their record and, in some cases, losing their job opportunities.
The system can also be gamed if undocumented immigrants use the identification of another person, including those belonging to dead people, stolen IDs, or borrowed IDs from friends or relatives.
Defenders of E-Verify say that despite its flaws, the program is highly effective and constantly improving.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has been sponsoring the Legal Workforce Act for years, which would make E-Verify mandatory for all U.S. businesses, require the government to improve its records and allow U.S. citizens to lock in their Social Security numbers so nobody else can use them.
In a statement, Smith said the Iowa slaying murder is yet another example of why E-Verify is so sorely needed.