The New Employee Verification Act

U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (3rd Dist. Texas) - the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Social Security, Committee on Ways and Means, re-introduced the New Employee Verification Act (NEVA), H.R. 2028, with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (8th district.-Ariz.) Thursday April 23rd.

Employers currently are required to verify new hires citizenship and/or eligibility to work with a paper I-9 Form. Also available to employers is an E-Verify program where an employer can match the information provided on the I-9 form with the Department of Immigration for an employment eligibility status on the new hire. E-Verify will expire on September 30, 2009. NEVA will extend E-Verify until November of 2013 but with three major changes; then, E-Verify will be repealed when NEVA is fully implemented, which is 36 months after the date of enactment of the bill.

Michael Young of ConnectPay reports that the E-Verify process has not been widely used, partly because it is cumbersome to get registered and hasn’t been promoted publicly well. Under the "new" NEVA (H.R. 2028), employers would be able to verify employment eligibility, would rely on the use of fewer, more secure identity documents and would build upon the new hire reporting process already in place and in use in each state. This program is already used by 90% of employers and was put in place a dozen years ago to track down dead beat dads.

To impress upon Congress the need for the “new” Act (H.R. 2028) that U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson has re-introduced, Congressman Johnson states that under the current E-Verify process, employers can play by the rules and try to do everything right, yet they can still end up hiring illegal immigrants by accident.

He cites the following two incidents:

In April 2008, Homeland Security agents raided Pilgrim’s Pride chicken-plucker plants in five states in the South, including Texas. The federal agents took 400 employees into custody and charged the illegal immigrants with document fraud and selling stolen Social Security numbers. The poultry producer voluntarily participates in the employment verification system, E-verify.

In December 2006, nearly 1,300 workers in six states at Swift and Company were arrested, including many in Cactus, Texas. A Swift and Company human resource official testified before a House panel that Swift had willingly participated in the government’s voluntary verification program, E-verify, for Social Security numbers since 1997.

"The immigrations raids showcase the growing practice by illegal immigrants of using authentic documents - borrowed, rented, purchased or stolen - to avoid detection in the hiring process. Clearly we must create new solutions to prevent illegal immigrants from taking American jobs,” concluded Johnson.

Under Congresman Johsnon's "new" NEVA (H.R. 2028), American citizens work authorization would be confirmed only through the Social Security Administration. For non-citizens, work authorization would be confirmed through the Department of Homeland Security that maintains relevant databases on visa and immigration status.

Through the current pilot program on employee verification, E-Verify, the Department of Homeland Security currently checks the work authorization of all newly hired employees of employers who choose to participate. Johnson believes that the DHS has no business keeping tabs on the work records of law-abiding citizens and considers this the fundamental job of the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The new bill if passed would also help to safeguard worker’s identities and would help protect the integrity of the Social Security system.

For more detailed information, see Congressman Johnson’s News Release by Clicking here .

The Society for Human Resource Management, the American Council on International Personnel, and the Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (http://www.legal-workforce.org/ ) also back the New Employee Verification Act.

Michael Young encourages employers to contact our MA U.S. Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and encourage her to vote in favor of the New Employee Verification Act (NEVA), H.R. 2028.

Capitol Office Information:

Address: 1607 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3411
Fax: (202) 226-0771
Web Site: http://tsongas.house.gov/


District Office Information:

Address: 11 Kearney Square
3rd Floor
Lowell, MA 01852
Phone: (978) 459-0101