E-Verify: Immigration Reform's Threat To Legal Workers (Op-Ed)

"Despite its problems, Congress and the president will consider a national E-Verify mandate in immigration reform proposals this spring.  President Obama called for “a system to give employers a reliable way to verify that their employees are here legally.”  But E-Verify is not reliable and shifts enforcement costs onto citizens.  According to E-Verify’s government audit, a national mandate would deem 1.2 million to 3.5 million legal employees, like Ken Nagel’s daughter, initially ineligible to work.  In 2008, Intel, the computer chip maker, put its new employees through E-Verify and 12 percent were declared ineligible.  A firm representative told officials that resolving the errors took a “significant investment of time and money, lost productivity and many hours of confusion, worry and upset.”  The government’s numbers also project 770,000 erroneous final non-confirmations (FNCs), which require employers to fire the worker." - David Bier, Jan. 10, 2013.