E-Verify, Illegals, and Stimulus Jobs

I have seen two threads about illegals possibly getting jobs thanks to Obama's stimulus plan that was recently passed by Congress. Most of the jobs tend to be in construction. .

First, it is a voluntary program and it is up to the employers whether they care to participate. If you are really serious and want this program then lobby your employer/State to adopt this program. Guess it is easier to get mad at the illegals than those who are allowing the practice to happen.

E-Verify

E-Verify (formerly the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program) is an online system operated jointly by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration (SSA). Participating employers can check the work status of new hires online by comparing information from an employee's I-9 form against SSA and Department of Homeland Security databases. More than 87,000 employers are enrolled in the program, with over 6.5 million queries run so far in fiscal year 2008.

www.dhs.gov...


However, effective on May 21, 2009, all federal contractors will have to verify through E-Verify that all their employees are of legal status. You may thank President Bush for this. This could possibly affect private businesses and sub-contractors that contract with federal contractors. Seems to me that come May many people or companies receiving this money from the stimulus plan will have to use E-Verify.

For Federal Contract Employers

Federal contractors and subcontractors will be required to begin using the E-Verify system starting May 21, 2009. The new rule implements Executive Order 12989, as amended by President George W. Bush on June 6, 2008, directing federal agencies to require that federal contractors agree to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their employees. The amended Executive Order reinforces the policy, first announced in 1996, that the federal government does business with companies that have a legal workforce.

www.dhs.gov...


Furthermore, within the stimulus bill you will find the following:

Sec. 16101. Hiring American workers in companies receiving TARP funding.(a) Short TitleWorkers in Companies Receiving TARP Funding. (a) SHORT TITLE- This section may be cited as the ‘Employ American Workers Act’.

(b) ProhibitionROHIBITION-

(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, it shall be unlawful for any recipient of funding under title I of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-343) or section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 342 et seq.) to hire any nonimmigrant described in section 101(a)(15)(h)(i)(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(h)(i)(b)) unless the recipient is in compliance with the requirements for an H-1B dependent employer (as defined in section 212(n)(3) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)(3))), except that the second sentence of section 212(n)(1)(E)(ii) of such Act shall not apply.

(2) DEFINED TERM- In this subsection, the term ‘hire’ means to permit a new employee to commence a period of employment.

www.opencongress.org...

This means no illegals can be hired.

Furthermore from same source as above.

Verification of Eligibility for Program Benefits-CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

‘(1) IN GENERAL- An agreement under this subchapter shall provide that the State shall periodically redetermine that a worker receiving benefits under this subchapter who is not a citizen or national of the United States remains in a satisfactory immigration status. Once satisfactory immigration status has been initially verified through the immigration status verification system described in section 1137(d) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320b-7(d)) for purposes of establishing a worker’s eligibility for unemployment compensation, the State shall reverify the worker’s immigration status if the documentation provided during initial verification will expire during the period in which that worker is potentially eligible to receive benefits under this subchapter. The State shall conduct such redetermination in a timely manner, utilizing the immigration status verification system described in section 1137(d) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320b-7(d)).CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

‘(2) PROCEDURES- The Secretary shall establish procedures to ensure the uniform application by the States of the requirements of this subsection.’.

No illegals are entitled to benefits.

Finally, E-Verify is not a perfect system and has many flaws as an independent study proved.

In 2007, DHS commissioned an independent study of E-Verify, which concluded that "the database used for verification is still not sufficiently up to date to meet the requirements for accurate verification." The error rate was almost 10% for foreign-born U.S. citizens. E-Verify's vulnerability to identity fraud is also problematic. A person using a valid Social Security card that doesn't belong to him would go undetected by the system. Mandating use of E-Verify could provide a nice boon to an already thriving document-fraud industry.

online.wsj.com...

This shows me that even if an employer did use E-Verify, there would still be illegals working because the program isn't perfect.


Here is a map of States that mandate E-verify partially or fully.

www.numbersusa.com...


Personally, I think illegal immigrants have little chance of getting jobs because of the stimulus plan. And those illegals who are lucky enough to get a job would have gotten their job whether E-Verify was used or not. An independent DHS study itself said that A person using a valid Social Security card that doesn't belong to him would go undetected by the system. I guess if somebody want a job bad enough they will find a way.