HR Initiative Critical of Executive Order Mandating E-Verify

Washington, D.C. – The HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce today criticized a new Executive Order requiring all federal contractors to participate in the E-Verify program.  E-Verify is the voluntary federal electronic employment verification system that has been widely criticized for its dependence on paper-based identity documents and its subsequent inability to detect the use of fraudulent identification and stolen Social Security numbers – a common tactic used by unauthorized workers to obtain jobs. 

“The HR Initiative strongly supports the goal of ensuring that workers who enter the U.S. workforce are authorized.  However, mandating participation in a system that doesn’t really work won’t give employers the tools they need to ensure a legal workforce,” said Mike Aitken, Director of Government Affairs, Society for Human Resource Management.

Aitken also cautioned that requiring as many as 200,000 federal contractors to participate in E-Verify – formerly known as the “Basic Pilot” – will overwhelm a system that currently serves only 69,000 U.S. employers, and will unnecessarily burden the Social Security Administration.

“There have been several well documented cases of U.S. employers that used E-Verify, and were subsequently raided by U.S. law enforcement authorities for hiring unauthorized workers.   Clearly the system didn’t work then, and there is no reason to believe it will work in the future.  With E-Verify set to expire this November, now is the time for Congress to build on this voluntary experiment with electronic verification and transition to a comprehensive approach to worksite enforcement,” Aitken continued.

As an alternative to E-Verify, the HR Initiative has endorsed the New Employee Verification Act (H.R. 5515).  “NEVA” addresses the shortcomings of E-Verify by establishing a fully electronic verification system that can detect identity theft and keep unauthorized workers off U.S. payrolls.

Members of the HR Initiative include:
•    American Council on International Personnel
•    College and University Professional Association for Human Resources
•    Food Marketing Institute
•    HR Policy Association
•    International Public Management Association for Human Resources
•    National Association of Manufacturers
•    National Franchisee Association
•    Society for Human Resource Management