Employment Eligibility Verification Systems

The 113th Congress is expected to take up comprehensive immigration reform. Some of the most difficult immigration policy questions on the table concern unauthorised immigration and unauthorised employment. The discussion about these issues builds on the work of prior Congresses. In 1986, following many years of debate about unauthorised immigration to the United States, Congress enacted the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). This law sought to address unauthorised immigration, in part, by requiring all employers to examine documents presented by new hires to verify identity and work authorisation and to complete and retain employment eligibility verification (I-9) forms. Ten years later, in the face of a growing illegal alien population, Congress attempted to strengthen the employment verification process by establishing pilot programs for electronic verification, as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). This book examines current legislation on electronic employment eligibility verification and evaluates proposals in terms of their potential impact on unauthorised employment; verification system accuracy, efficiency, discrimination, employer compliance, and privacy issues.