E-Verify Program: Compliance, Operations, and Verification Needs

This report provides an overview of the E-Verify program, an online system used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to verify employment permits. It discusses the program's operations, including data comparison with DHS, Social Security Administration (SSA), and Department of State (DOS) databases, as well as the use of facial image recognition. The report outlines exceptions to E-Verify use, such as mandatory verification for federal employees and contractors. It details the E-Verify process, from filling out form I-9 to the rendering of results and potential employee contests. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of compliance with E-Verify and I-9 regulations, highlighting the role of Immigration and Custom Enforcements (ICE) and the penalties for errors. It concludes that E-Verify has been instrumental in addressing employee authorization issues in the USA, requiring organizations to present form I-9 to confirm employee eligibility, with failure resulting in work termination.

E-Verify
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Introduction
E-Verify is an online program used by Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) to authorize all employment permits.
It was first introduced in year 1996 but has been facing some resistance from
several quarters in the market.
In government new development on use of E-Verify, all organizations are
required to submit form I-9 for verification.
Currently, all government agencies are mandated to use E-Verify to confirm
authenticity of their employees.

E-Verify Operations
The Program compares data submitted in form I-9 by both employer and
employee with DHS, Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of
State (DOS) databases.
Several advancements have been done to accommodate facial image of the
employee for ease of identification.
Some exceptions have been provided by state governments on use of E-Verify
program.

E-Verify Operations Cont.’
E-Verify use exceptions are;
All Federal employees must be certified through E-Verify program by various
agencies.
All contractors should confirm their employees through E-Verify program.
Any employee participating in the contract should be authorized even if working
from another state.
E-Verify should be used by all employees working from same state government.

E-Verify Operations Cont.’
E-Verify search algorithm returns either positive or negative results.
Positive results indicates employees details have been authorized to be valid.
Negative results may be due to slight discrepancy and employer is notified
through an alert.
Employer informs employee, which in return may file a contest with SSA.
Failure to comply with requirements requested in 8 days, DHS sends an alert to
employer requesting for work termination.

E-Verify and I-9 software
Both E-Verify and I-9 software are used for employees verification.
Employees data is captured using form I-9 which is submitted to DHS for
verification using E-verify program.
Data from I-9 is used to search for information match from all the relevant
agencies.
Form I-9 is used to make documentation process simple and error free.
I-9 form design has been done in compliance with all state government rules by
bringing together various stakeholders such as lawyers.

E-Verify Process
The following steps are mandatory during employee verification;
Filling form I-9 by both employee and employer.
Start of E-verify process within the first 3 days of employee work
Image match from submitted documents with Federal database information.
Rendering of results by DHS and SSA once all information has been presented
by employer.

E-Verify Process cont.’
Employee files a contest against Tentative NonConfirmation message (TNC) in
8 days.
If employee files a contest or does not, final results rendering is done and
applicable results are send to employer.
In case confirmation fails, employer is notified to terminate employment.

Companies need for verification process
State governments have been taking verification seriously as they have
intensified investigations.
Immigration and Custom Enforcements (ICE) is the body mandated to certify
E-verify adoption compliance.
Due to complexity of compliance with required standards in terms of safe
keeping of I-9, error, and inability to correct errors organizations need
verification services.

Companies need for verification process Cont.’
ICE audit has been considered to be very tough and it is attracting heavy
penalties on companies.
Each single error identified on I-9 attracts a specific fine, which may turn
organizational performance down drastically.
Due to required attention on form I-9, organizations find it necessary to
outsource E-verify services.

Conclusion
Employees’ authorization has been a major problem in USA and E-Verify has
proved to solve the issue.
To quality to be USA employee, organizations are required to present duly
filled form I-9.
This information is used by DHS to confirm and authorize employee eligibility
to work in USA.
Confirmation failure results to employee work termination.

Bibliography
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Bohn, S., Lofstrom, M. and Raphael, S., 2015. Do E‐verify
mandates improve labor market outcomes of low‐skilled native
and legal immigrant workers? Southern Economic Journal, 81(4),
pp.960-979.
Calvasina, G.E., Calvasina, R.V. and Calvasina, E.J., 2011.
Changes in enforcement focus coming to the US Department of
Labor: Policy and practice issues for employers. Journal of Legal,
Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 14(1), p.91.
Romero, L., 2008. E-Verify: Expansion and Recent Developments.