DHS has announced that it is making a three part enhancement to E-Verify that would decrease the mismatch rate for naturalized citizens. I’ve been blogging about this problem regularly since about 10% of naturalized US citizens show up in the system as being illegally present in the US. Obviously, this is a serious, serious problem.
DHS says that starting right away, the system will include naturalization data which will help instantly confirm the citizenship status of a naturalized citizen. According to DHS, this is the #1 reason for incorrect non-confirmations in E-Verify since the Social Security Administration needs to be notified of a naturalization in order to update their system and show a person is authorized to work. Naturalized citizens who receive a mismatch are being instructed to either call USCIS or resolve the issue in person with an SSA field office.
Another immediate change will be the inclusion of real time arrival data from the Integrated Border Inspection System. According to DHS, this will reduce the number of immigration related mismatches for newly arriving workers who have entered the country legally.
Finally, DHS has indicated that it plans on initiating information sharing with SSA to prevent nonconfirmations from happening in the first place. They also plan to check against Department of State passport records to further reduce mismatches.
These changes are all, in my opinion, welcome. I am not against E-Verify per se and believe that in the context of a reformed immigration system (that deals with enforcement, legalization and the future need for workers), electronic verification will be critical to enforcing our immigration laws.
But I still have a strong suggestion and that is that under both the E-Verify and proposed no-match systems, workers who contest a non-confirmation should be considered employment authorized until DHS or SSA actually resolve the dispute. That is the only way US citizen workers falsely identified will be protected (and this will probably be the only way to satisfy a judge that the system does not violate the Constitution’s equal protection protection).