HR Initiative Applauds Senator Schumer for Promoting Biometric Employment Verification in Immigration Reform

Washington, D.C. – The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce applauded Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) for including a call for a national biometric-based employment verification system as a key element of the immigration reform legislation he will introduce in the fall.

The HR Initiative was founded on the premise that the United States must provide employers with the tools they need to detect identity theft and document fraud in the workplace.  The current federal system, E-Verify, relies on paper-based identity documentation – which is vulnerable to abuse.  A biometric system, on the other hand, offers a foolproof method for preventing unauthorized workers from obtaining employment, and will help guard against fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.

Senator Schumer, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, presented his principles for immigration reform in remarks before the Immigration Law and Policy Conference at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

The HR Initiative endorsed the third of his seven principles:

A biometric-based employer verification system—with tough enforcement and auditing—is necessary to significantly diminish the job magnet that attracts illegal aliens to the United States and to provide certainty and simplicity for employers.

“Many occupations already require biometric identification for employees, and consumers are regularly given the option of securing their identity through use of a biometric identifier.  It only makes sense to use the best technologies that are available to guarantee a legal workforce,” said Mike Aitken, Director of Government Affairs, Society for Human Resource Management.  “HR professionals enthusiastically endorse Senator Schumer’s call for a biometric employment verification system, and we look forward to working with him to ensure that this important provision is included in legislation moving forward.”

Visit www.legal-workforce.org to learn more about the HR Initiative.

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The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce (http://www.legalworkforce.org) represents human resource professionals in thousands of small and large U.S. employers representing every sector of the American economy.  The HR Initiative and its members are seeking to improve the current process of employment verification by creating a secure, efficient and reliable system that will ensure a legal workforce and help prevent unauthorized employment, a root cause of illegal immigration.